In Latin America, the socio-economic background of students and of the school have a marked influence on access to education, performance and completion. Only 56% of those in the lowest income quintile attend secondary school and only
9% continue into tertiary education, compared with 87% and 46%, respectively, for those in the highest income quintile. In the PISA 2012 tests, in Latin America almost 30% of the variation in students’ results in secondary education was
associated with socio-economic factors, compared with an average of 26% in OECD countries (Figure 4). As a result of these performance differences associated with socio-economic and cultural factors, students in the lowest income quartile fall two years behind those in the highest income quartile.