Juancito Pinto el tamborrero y el bono que lleva su nombre or an Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) with a difference

They say that Juancito Pinto was a 12 year-old drummer who took part, like many other children of yesteryear and of today, in the Pacific War that in 1880 saw Chile easily defeat Bolivian forces annexing Bolivia’s coastline and access to the sea.

This national tragedy cemented the country’s sense of identity and Bolivia’s highest foreign policy priority — recovering access to the sea — ever since. For Juancito Pinto, it meant his death when after seeing his friends killed, he chose to abandon his drum and take a weapon. It also meant his rebirth, many years later, as a national hero whose name today is symbol of a different campaign to ensure that every child attends school in Bolivia.

It is a tall order since as UN figures show, secondary education enrolment levels are below 70 percent, a problem that affects girls in even higher numbers. What the Bono Juancito Pinto does is give each school child up to grade 8, 200 bolivianos (around $ 30) at the end of each year providing they meet a minimum attendance requirement.

It is a key form of economic support that erodes the need for work, a need omnipresent in the streets of La Paz where children as young as nine are seen working as shoe shines, street sellers or as fare collectors in private minibuses.

In this regard, the Bono Juancito pinto shares its aims with the British Educational Maintenance Allowance for secondary school children who qualify according to a means test criteria. It is, in the President’s words, part of the country’s effort towards achieving the goal of ‘vivir bien’, literally ‘living well’ (another entry on vivir bien to follow soon).