Education as a dimension of human development: A Provincial-level Education Index for Ecuador

that, with the exception of Pichincha, whose PEI was 0.751, the rest of the provinces were still far from 0.784, the threshold that determines the level of very high educational development. In addition to Pichincha, the provinces with the highest PEI values in 2014 were Pastaza, Loja, Guayas, Tungurahua, and El Oro. At the other end of the scale were Chimborazo, Coto- paxi, Sucumbı´os, and Los Rı´os, which displayed the lowest values. Esmeraldas and Cañar wit- nessed the greatest increase in their PEI. When comparing the educational development of Ecuadorian provinces with that of LAC countries with the same socioeconomic characteristics (Paraguay, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Colombia, Belize, Brazil, Jamaica, Panama, Peru, and Costa Rica) it is worth noting that Tungurahua and Guayas were only surpassed by Peru and Costa Rica. Also, the cases of Pastaza and Loja must be highlighted, as they had a PEI only lower than that of Costa Rica. Finally, above all, Pichincha outstands for having a higher edu- cational development than all the countries considered. All LAC countries analyzed presented better educational development than the provinces with the lowest PEI–with the exception of Paraguay, whose education index was lower than the PEI of Los Rı´os and Orellana. Our results are consistent with the data provided by official statistics regarding variables such as the literacy rate or the percentage of people in households with children who do not go to school. Thus, Pichincha presented the lowest rate of illiteracy in 2014, followed by Guayas

and Loja (3.7%, 5.65%, and 5.8%, respectively), whereas the highest values corresponded to Chimborazo (19.4%) and Cotopaxi (13.7%), with Esmeraldas and Cañar evidencing the great- est reduction in illiteracy rates (from 13.4% to 8.5% and from 15.3% to 9.6%) during the study period [91]. In addition, Pichincha and Loja had the lowest percentage of people in households with children who did not go to school (0.5%), followed by Guayas (0.8%), while Chimborazo (1.1%) and Sucumbı´os (1.6%) had the highest [91]. A wide range of reasons may lie behind our results. First, there is the need to consider the actual production structure and level of economic development of the various provinces. Amongst those evidencing the highest PEI values during the studied period, Pichincha, together with Guayas and Tungurahua, form part of the group of provinces displaying the greatest economic development [100]. These provinces have traditionally benefitted from bet- ter opportunities in terms of access to education and have also enjoyed a better-quality educa- tion system [101]. They also have the largest number of technical and technological institutes (over half of those in Ecuador are in Pichincha and Guayas), as well as the highest number of students enrolled at these institutions (over 65% between the two provinces) [102]. Bearing in Fig 5. Comparison between the values of the Provincial-level Education Index of the provinces with the highest and lowest value of said index and the values of the

education index of the Human Development Index for countries with an upper-middle income in Latin-America and the Caribbean. 2014. Note: Upper-middle income countries in 2014 are those with a gross national income per capita of between $4,126 and $12,735 according to the World Bank classification in 2014 [99]. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0270932.g005 PLOS ONE Education as a dimension of Human development PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0270932 July 8, 2022 16 / 27