Abstract

ALVAREZ GALLEGOS, Alejandro. The Limits of the Economics of Education: The Need for a Broader Perspective. Rev. colomb. educ. [online]. 2014, n.67, pp.19-46. ISSN 0120-3916.

This article questions the way in which the authors of After Excellence in Education -a group of economists-, sponsored by Fundación Compartir, address the issue of quality in education in Colombia. It also questions their proposal of a public policy, which focuses on boosting the competence of teachers across the country. The authors or this document analyze the core arguments of the study, exposing one by one the reasons why they consider that there is an inappropriate use of the statistical tools, which affects the conclusions drawn by the group of economists as well as the proposals they make based upon those results. The arguments for the critical discussion are exposed by experts in education and pedagogy, whose foundational principles are different from those underlying the economists' arguments. The fundamental criticisms refer to the notion of education as a learning production process, similar to the production process of any good; to the notion of quality associated to national and international standardized tests; to the way statistics are used to prove that the most important factor in learning production is the teacher, and finally, to the exclusion of other factors -i. e., students' social and economical background- to estimate the problems of quality in education. Other approaches are discussed, and it is suggested to enrich the analysis with contributions from other disciplines, assuming education as a human right.

Keywords : Quality in education; teacher; learning; economics of education; right to education.

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