| Resumen: |
School attendance in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has increased exponentially in the last two
decades, almost every child goes to primary school and access to preschool and high school is fast
catching up. This increase in access has been mostly led by more attendance to school of previously
excluded children and youth -poor, rural and indigenous populations-, which has created a
heterogeneous pool of students with very diverse needs, abilities and interests. These changes impose
new challenges and roles for teachers aiming to improve the quality of learning. Under this new pool of
students teachers should be able to compensate for the different abilities that students come to class
with to achieve similar and better learning for all students; they should be capable of containing
students that come to class with diverse problems – violence, discrimination, teenage pregnancy-; and,
finally, they should be skilled to facilitate the transition from school to work by equipping students with
the skills needed to succeed in the labor market. Based on descriptive statistics on increased access to
education and some learning and life outcomes, we discuss in detail how the three new roles called
upon teachers can help improve the quality of education in LAC. Finally, we conclude with some
promising examples on how countries and international organizations are attempting to create a
teaching force that can fulfill these roles.
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