The Secondary Education in Five South American Countries: Normative Definitions and Empirical Results from the Right to Education Perspective

Abstract

INTRODUCTION. The Latin American educational reforms have made normative definitions regarding the right to education with diverse objectives. We discuss the topics of right to education and compulsory schooling since high secondary education was made compulsory because of these reforms in five South American countries. RESULTS. The increase of compulsory education, including all secondary schooling, has been introduced by the governments as part of education reform policies. The main argument was that the compulsory secondary schooling would promote the right to education in these South American countries. METHOD. Data for this research has been collected from governmental agencies of the studied countries and it has included document analyses (legislation and curriculum designs). To analyze the data, we first create interim case summaries, documenting the case of each country and its education reform by drawing upon excerpts field notes. These memos were mainly descriptive, documenting the main topic that was object of reform, including data from investment in education and statistics of schooling. This method seeks to explain where a particular outcome varies across similar countries by identifying variables that account for this. The inclusion of the five cases only has limited capacity in building a generalized explanation, but the variables (educational normative, educational statistics and investment) put forward in this article can serve as a basis for future applications on further sets of cases to advance the explanatory power of right to education. Thus, we track the recent trajectory of government policies for secondary education, which have been modified by these countries. DISCUSSION. We discuss the meaning of compulsory secondary education form a human right based perspective, and the issues that are involved, such as: educational expansion and investment among countries.