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This paper assesses progress made in elementary education in Latin America from 1990-2000. Besides examining completion rates, it looks at four critical indicators: the extent to which repetition rates have declined over the decade; the extent of timely access and on-time ages of elementary school students; the level or elementary school students' learning achievement; and changes in expenditures and other inputs into elementary education. The paper focuses on four countries (Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, and Honduras), which represent a wide spectrum of education conditions in the region. It uses data collected from a variety of sources, with the main criterion being reliable observations from 1999-2000. Results indicate that overall, the region has made progress in elementary education. More children complete their elementary schooling. They are also more likely to begin their schooling at appropriate ages, and they are less likely to repeat a grade. Most countries have increased their investments in education. However, 18 percent of children in the region do not complete 6 years of elementary education, and 16 percent repeat a grade. Progress in terms of learning has been slow or nonexistent. (Contains 29 bibliographic references.) (SM)

The purpose of this document is to describe AED's extensive experience in six countries that have undergone periods of violent conflict or natural disaster followed by extended and complex periods of increasing resilience, and if possible extract lessons learned from it. The focus is on what we have learned about effectively and sustainably restoring education in a context of development. This paper is timely for two reasons. First, the number of low-income countries experiencing crises, especially war, continues to escalate (Collier 2009). Second, there is a growing consensus among countries and donors that restoring education systems should begin as soon as the security of teachers and students can be assured and not wait until the termination of relief efforts. Education should be part of the solution from the beginning of the rebuilding process. It is hoped that this paper will facilitate that work in the future. This paper begins by reviewing AED's work over the last two decades in six countries on two continents (El Salvador,Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua in Latin America, and Ethiopia and Namibia in sub-Saharan Africa), considering their history and education sector as they move from fragility and attempt to consolidate education reform. This section seeks to extract lessons concerning the actual relationship between the education sector and fragility or resilience and what this has meant for AED's role promoting change in the education sector through its interactions with governments and donors. A second section takes the findings and underlines the interaction between donor, recipient, and implementer. A final section suggests paths for conceptual and operational development to better integrate assistance in crises with assistance for development in the education sector, and considers how this may be related to the degree of fragility or resilience, and how this may be further examined. (Contains 9 tables, 7 figures, 43 footnotes, and 25 additional resources. An annex presents trends in education, assistance and investment in six countries.)