Total public investment in education has risen considerably in recent years and now accounts for more than 5% of GDP (vs. 5.6% average for OECD countries in 2012). As a result, there is now almost universal access to primary education (91% of the region’s potential population, compared with 97% in the OECD countries). There has been a marked increase in school life expectancy, from 8 years in 1971 to 13 years in 2012 (in the OECD it increased from 11 to 17 years during the same period). However, coverage remains low in pre-primary education (66% of the pre-primary aged population in Latin America in 2012, compared with 83% in the OECD). This figure is particularly important, because pre-primary education is beneficial for the rest of one’s education cycle: secondary-school performance improves by the equivalent of almost a full school year among those who attended pre-primary education. Similarly, enrolment remains low at higher levels of education: 74% in secondary education (vs. 91% in the OECD countries) and 42% in tertiary education
(vs. 71% in the OECD countries). Progress in increasing enrolment in the region has been slow compared with that of some Asian countries. China, for instance, had slightly higher secondary-education enrolment rates than Latin America in
2012 thanks to a 140% increase since 1990, compared with a 50% increase in Latin America over the same period.