Reading comprehension and its influence on the academic performance of students.

According to a report on education by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 15-year-old students in several Latin American countries lag far behind those in other parts of the world in reading, mathematics and science.Among the Latin American countries included in the analysis, Peru is the one with the most alarming results. Eighty percent of the Peruvian students who participated in the surveys failed the reading test, failing to complete the most basic exercises of the exam. In the same situation were 40% of Mexicans and Argentines; 33% of Brazilians and 28% of Chileans. In Ecuador, reading has traditionally only been a mere description of graphic signs, reading for the sake of reading, and not with its true meaning, which deserves analysis and critical orientation in order to understand what is being read.