education

Test finds students struggle to read

DAVID MESA/LA PRENSA

bombed: Panamanian students exhibited poor reading and comprehension skills on a standardized test given to elementary school-aged students in 15 Latin American countries .1081103

In Panama, learning one’s ABCs may be hit or miss. A recent study of reading abilities in elementary school-aged students in certain Latin American countries found that some 50 percent of Panamanian children reached the third grade without having mastered basic reading skills well enough to understand a text.

Moreover, between 30 and 70 percent of Panamanian students in third through sixth grade earned failing scores in subjects such as science, mathematics and Spanish.

Pedro Ravela, a consultant with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), considered the test results a “serious” concern, since lacking these basic skills significantly reduces a student’s ability to acquire knowledge in other areas during their scholastic career.

Ravela visited Panama to participate in a forum aimed at analyzing the country’s woeful test scores. Educators also discussed updating educational policies and teaching practices, and compared the test results of public and private school students from the third through sixth grade.

Some 13,000 Panamanian students participated for the first time in the Segundo Estudio Regional Comparativo y Explicativo (Serce), along with students from 15 other countries in the region, including one Mexican state. Panamanian students ranked among the last places in most of the areas assessed. The highest scores for reading were earned by students from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, México and Uruguay, and Nuevo León, México.

Panama’s low ranking, however, is not as telling as the fact that many Panamanian children leave the third grade barely able to read, commented Ravela.

He recommended that educators and policymakers look at countries where students obtained the best results to help identify where Panama is lacking.

On the other hand, Ravel mentioned that Panama is among the countries that, theoretically, has the resources to invest in education, especially in respect to raising teachers’ salaries.