Chapter 3: E-Hopes And Public Education in Latin America

After several decades of criticisms and protests about stifling state control, bureaucratically-managed changes, financial irresponsibility, authoritarian systems, blatantly ideological curriculums, and poor results, those in charge of implementing the reform found fertile ground for their ideas. In country after country, the reforms were preached as gospel, promising societies to deliver a new era for education in Latin America by implementing a few simple changes: reduction of the state interventionism in the administration of schools, coupled with expanded schools’ institutional autonomy to “liberate” the entrepreneurial energies at schools and produce better teaching and learning. It is important to emphasize that the gospel of education reform and transformation in the region was also accompanied by a vigorous discourse advocating massive incorporation of ICTs into schools. Before looking specifically at ICTs in schools, we consider it relevant to summarize briefly the general situation of ICT infrastructure in Latin America, emphasizing the cases of Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Mexico.