Promises of big improvements in basic education were writ large in the manifesto that won Vicente Fox election as president of Mexico. Likewise for Brazil's president, Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Whereas their predecessors lavished spending on universities, aiming to train a small elite, the current generation of Latin American leaders say they recognise the value of ensuring that all children, especially the poorest, get a proper schooling. There is a broad regional consensus that improving the quantity and quality of education is vital for economic development, to reduce Latin America's disfiguring inequalities, and to create stable democracies. At last year's Summit of the Americas, the hemisphere's leaders, having previously pledged to achieve universal primary education by 2010, promised to have at least 75% of each country's youngsters completing secondary school by then. But is presidential rhetoric matched bv classroom reality?
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