Seminar on the Financing of Education in Latin America (Mexico City, Mexico, November 27-December 1, 1978).

Twelve papers from the Inter-American Development Bank's second seminar on educational finance in Latin America and the Caribbean analyze and present statistical data in two broad areas. First, they examine the relationships among Latin America's expanding educational programs, their costs and financing, and each country's socioeconomic development. Second, they suggest new educational policies, especially pertaining to the need to help lower-income groups by shifting emphasis from secondary and postsecondary levels to the primary level. Related to this shift would be new emphases on vocational and technical education, improvement of primary education quality, reduction of dropout and repetition rates, and education of rural and low-income urban populations. Among the topics discussed in the papers are the utility of economic theory for analyzing educational finance; the present state of education in Latin America; the relationship between educational finance and socioeconomic development, both in rural areas and nationally; public and private spending on education; future educational demand and expenditures; and the financial implications of policy changes in primary, vocational, and higher education. Ten of the papers include appendices of relevant educational statistics. (Author/RW)