Chile and the Global Innovation Index

Guess which Latin American country leads the region in the Global Innovation Index (GII) http://www.wipo.int/export/sites/www/freepublications/en/economics/gii_2012.pdf, an annual study by the World Intellectual Property Organization? The report, released earlier this month, ranked Chile in 39^th place among all countries studies and was the only Latin American country in the top 40.  Here’s an excerpt:

Chile shows strengths across the board, with the notable exception of Human capital and research (75^th), where it comes only in 6^th position out of 22 in the region, a result in line with the crisis of tertiary education in the country that was highlighted in 2011.Deficiencies are particularly evident in primary and secondary education, where it ranks 78^th in public expenditure per pupil over GDP per capita and 103^rd in the pupil-teacher ratio. In the region, it tops the Input Sub-Index (43^rd), the Output Sub-Index (34^th), Institutions (29^th) and Creative Outputs(18^th).

In plainer English, Chile’s overall innovation score is good, but its education system needs a serious overhaul. Or, as a colleague in Santiago just posted on his Facebook page:

“Chile is not the Third World, says a jaded reporter I know.  It’s Third World Plus.”