Election periods are an important time for societies to reassess their priorities. The current election campaign illustrates how little importance the public attaches to the state of our education system. Polls reveal that citizens are primarily concerned with violent crime and corruption. For instance, according to a Cifra survey from June 2024, only 4% of Uruguayans consider education a priority issue. This marks a worrying shift compared to past election cycles.
Candidates naturally tend to focus on issues that matter most to voters, which has resulted in education being underrepresented in election campaigns.
Improving our education system should be a major concern for Uruguayans. There is broad international consensus that enhancing education is a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for promoting development. No developed country has a low level of education. This explains why countries that have made the most rapid progress in recent years, such as Finland, South Korea, Singapore, and Israel, have made great efforts to continuously improving their education systems. These are democratic countries where successive governments have consistently focused on maintaining high-quality education.
This is not to say that our country has failed to make educational improvements. Over the past 40 years, secondary education coverage has increased, six new universities have been established, higher education has expanded into rural areas, the Ceibal Plan has been implemented to increase technological integration (an invaluable tool during the pandemic), the National Agency for Research and Innovation (ANII) has been created, a system of tax exemptions has been approved to encourage donations to educational institutions, the education budget has reached record levels, many new technical and university courses have been introduced, and the range of postgraduate courses has grown.
While these changes have been positive, they have not been sufficient to alter the trajectory of our education system.
Where do we stand now? One of the most pressing issues is that we have not managed to significantly increase the percentage of students who complete secondary education. Young people who do not finish their secondary education face exclusion from higher education and, consequently, from their potential for personal development. In a sparsely populated country like ours, this represents a significant loss of intellectual capital and productive capacity. According to a report published in June 2024 by the National Institute for Educational Evaluation (INEEd), only 50% of Uruguayans aged 21-23 have completed secondary school (for example, the figure in Brazil is 73%).
Moreover, we have failed to address the severe inequality associated with high school completion. Statistics show that the highest income brackets graduate from high school at rates comparable to European countries, while the lowest income brackets graduate at rates typical of poor African countries.
Recently, one of the presidential candidates proposed a financial reward scheme for students from low-income backgrounds who complete their secondary education. This is a positive initiative that brings education back into the spotlight, although international experience does not provide much evidence on the outcomes of such measures, which depend on their implementation.
We have also been unable to achieve significant improvements in the quality of learning. Evidence from the PISA tests and other metrics provides consistent support in this regard. We cannot expect a qualitative leap in productivity and innovation if the quality of our students' learning is below the international average.
We are beginning to see a transformation in primary and secondary education. Although promising, it is too early to measure its impact or to ensure it will continue under future governments.
More universities have been established, but they remain too disconnected from the productive sector, which in turn has low levels of investment in research and innovation (except for the dynamic, though still emerging, ecosystem of technological entrepreneurship). The tax relief scheme could have helped encourage innovation; however, it was undermined by minor political issues within a few years of its creation.
Our country needs a qualitative leap in its education system in order to enter a new stage of development and to offer progress opportunities to our entire population. For this to happen, it will depend on transformations that require political will. Candidates should listen to the public's concerns, but leaders must look beyond opinion polls. Leaders must strive to identify the challenges of the future and prepare their societies to meet them.
The upcoming election cycle is an opportunity for the general public to place education at the top of the agenda for those running for government and to vote for those who present the most convincing and effective plans. Education transcends partisanship, and therefore all Uruguayans must embrace it as a common cause. The Uruguay of the future will reflect the education system of today.