Continuing education needs of the Latin American population are related to the need of Latin American countries for social and economic development. The source of continuing educaton needs is the area's differentiated socioeconomic development and cultural diversity. Some common features of Latin American educational systems, well known as persistent obstacles to the educational develolpment of the region, are inequality of educational opportunities, low entry and completion rates of schooling, high illiteracy and dropout rates, and low quality of education. These shortcomings are due to external factors (social stratification combined with an imbalance in educational opportunities between urban and rural areas, lack of money) and factors internal to schools (curriculum irrelevance, teachers' performance). Latin America is aware of its problems as shown by its educational policies. Two continuing education programs to meet specific needs of people are the Chilean project, "Parents and Children: an Educational Program for the Popular Family," and Brazil's MOBRAL (Brazilian Movement of Literacy). The continuing education needs in Latin America can be summarized as being the needs to clarify assumptions, to develop an indigenous educational theory, to specify sound policy goals, and to develop new teaching-learning methods. (YLB)