Education.
To help
expand knowledge of fundamental problems in Latin American
education—university modernization, learning for the rural
and urban poor, and vocational training, for example—the
Foundation granted $500,000 to Harvard's Center for Studies in
Education and Development. The center will collaborate with
scholars in Latin America on research studies to be distributed
throughout the hemisphere.
Preparation
of more teachers for universities and teacher-training schools was
the focus of a grant to assist expansion of the Latin American
Scholarship Program of American Universities. Limited to
thirty-nine undergraduates from Colombia in 1965, 150 scholarships
were awarded this year in nine countries in Latin America and the
Caribbean. The awards, administered by Harvard, finance studies in
the United States.
To test
whether young North American instructors can teach in Latin
American universities as well as or better than their older
colleagues, a grant was made to Tufts University. Traditionally,
senior United States professors staff most overseas teaching
programs; the experiment, in which ten young teachers will
participate, will compare their facility in teaching and adapting
to a different environment.
The
Foundation supplemented with $200,000 a 1963 grant for the
organization of an Argentine institution of higher learning
emphasizing the sciences. Located in Bariloche, it will use the new
aid for academic planning and the organization of fund raising.
The
collaboration begun last year between the University of Chile and
the University of California, which features an exchange of faculty
and graduate students, was assisted further with a $2 million
grant. The institutions are cooperating in science and engineering,
agricultural and veterinary sciences, the humanities and arts, and
library development.
In Brazil,
support was given to the Carlos Chagas Foundation to expand its
program of uniform examinations for admission to several
universities. The new practice, already adopted by eleven faculties
in the State of São Paulo, is an important reform, replacing
independent entrance tests by each faculty.
In Peru,
support went to the Pilot Institute of Training for Industrial
Work, in Lima, which trains teachers for technical schools. It will
use the funds to strengthen courses and for teaching materials,
equipment, tools, and books.
In the
Dominican Republic, a grant was made to help a group of young
businessmen develop a postsecondary school in administrative and
commercial subjects with the help of Rhode Island's Bryant
College.
Population.
In Northeast
Brazil, where the rate of population growth is probably the highest
in Latin America, the Foundation gave $476,500 to the Federal
University of Bahia to help expand research and training related to
reproductive biology. The university, whose hospital has done
pioneering research in uterine physiology, will offer courses for
local physicians and conduct a fertility and abortion
study.