signal · indexed from World Bank Documents & Reports

Where Paths Divide : Transforming Secondary Education in Latin America and the Caribbean - Executive Summary

World Bank

Published

01 Sept 2026

Secondary education is the region’s critical bridge. For most young people, it is the final stage of formal schooling and the main platform from which they enter work, pursue further study, and navigate the transition to adulthood. Its quality therefore shapes not only individual prospects, but also productivity, social mobility, and cohesion across the region. For the majority of workers, secondary education is not a passage to something else; it is the principal educational foundation they bring to the labor market. When that foundation is weak, young people face the future with fewer options and economies lose much of the return on decades of expanded schooling. The next frontier is therefore not simply to enroll more adolescents. It is to help them stay in school, learn what matters, and complete with meaningful prospects. Achieving all three requires coherent reform packages adapted to each country’s needs - and the capacity to deliver them reliably at scale.