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Closing the Dream Gap: the Key to an Inclusive & Equitable Education

Girls and boys begin to classify jobs according to gender at the age of six. At the age of 12, about 50% of girls aspire only to stereotypically feminine roles – this is the “dream gap.”

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Virtual Education: Challenges and Opportunities

Virtual education, in many ways a result of the pandemic, is creating many challenges and opportunities in the region, including the rise of hybrid education models with a face-to-face element. New approaches to student management and monitoring are essential.

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This is the Time to Push Social Infrastructure in Latin America and the Caribbean

Discussions about investment in transport infrastructure as a recipe to get out of the crisis have become a cliché. But there's not so much talk about investment in social infrastructure, focused on sectors such as health or education, which also creates large multiplier effects.

STEM minus Women = Private Sector Problem
STEM minus Women = Private Sector Problem

By Kristin Dacey & Sanola Daley* Math and Science are for Men Women are not smart enough to be engineers. Women are not good at math. Isn’t this why globally men earn 70% of doctoral degrees in mathematics and the world rejoiced recently that a woman – Maryam Mirzakhani –won the top prize in mathematics for the first time?

MOOCs:  The region's next big thing?
MOOCs: The region's next big thing?

What do massive open online courses (MOOCs) have to do with private sector development in Latin America and the Caribbean? The concept is to create fee and open content for students to reach scale and allow access, impacting not just the students in a physical classroom but thousands of students who participate via the internet.  MOOCs enable people interested in learning to take a course online on their own time to learn about an interesting topic, develop a new skill for work or learn how to deal with a new problem.  Students can also take courses from accredited schools around the world.

Diversity and financial returns in higher education in Peru
Diversity and financial returns in higher education in Peru

How the Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola revolutionizes access to higher education while still staying competitive By Bettina Boekle, Social Sustainability Specialist, IDB Would you believe me if I told you that in a large, prestigious Peruvian university, 97 percent of the students receiving a governmental scholarship self-identified as indigenous and speak numerous native languages amongst themselves? Yes, the 97 percent is real. Less and less is higher education in Peru attainable only for the upper class. Thanks to scholarship program Beca 18, Peru is offering free access to higher education for students from low-income families and remote areas of Peru. And the Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola (USIL) is becoming a more diverse institution. To offer more entry points, for example to a growing emerging middle class, this week USIL and the IDB are officially launching an innovative student guarantee fund coupled with a clear implementation map around the principle of shared value.