Setting aside the limitations of standardized tests, measures of academic outcomes in the region's countries (particularly the 2012 PISA tests) suggest that a high percentage of the student population performs very poorly in basic competencies such as mathematics. In addition, the gap between the PISA results of the Latin American countries and the average for the OECD member countries is very wide. Most of the students in the first and second socioeconomic and cultural quartiles in the region's countries score below level 2, which means that they have not developed the basic competencies needed to perform in the area (see figure 1.20). Not only do they raise red flags about the sustainability of the progress made in reducing inequality and building capacity for the transition to more productive societies, but also they lead to gaps in autonomy, understood here as different margins of liberty for individuals to embark on life projects that hold genuine value for them.