Education in Bolivia, as in many other areas of Bolivian life, has a divide between Bolivia's rural and urban areas.[1] Rural illiteracy levels remain high, even as the rest of the country becomes increasingly literate.[1] Bolivia devotes 23% of its annual budget to educational expenditures, a higher percentage than in most other South American countries, albeit from a smaller national budget.[1] A comprehensive, education reform has made some significant changes.[1] Initiated in 1994, the reform decentralized educational funding in order to meet diverse local needs, improved teacher training and curricula, formalized and expanded intercultural bilingual education and changed the school grade system.[1] Resistance from teachers’ unions, however, has slowed implementation of some of the intended reforms.[1][2]
The Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI)[3] finds that Bolivia is fulfilling only 83.2% of what it should be fulfilling for the right to education based on the country's level of income.[4] HRMI breaks down the right to education by looking at the rights to both primary education and secondary education. While taking into consideration Bolivia's income level, the nation is achieving 85.7% of what should be possible based on its resources (income) for primary education but only 80.7% for secondary education.[5]
History
Chronic political instability hindered the development of general education throughout Bolivia's history.[6] In the colonial era, education was limited to a few clergy acting as tutors for the sons of elite families.[6] Little effort was made to teach the Indians beyond the bare necessity to convert them.[6] Independence brought a series of ambitious decrees calling for universal, compulsory primary education and a public school system; nonetheless, little was accomplished.[6] By 1900 schools existed primarily to serve urban elites.[6] No vocational or agricultural institutes existed in the country.[6] Only 17 percent of the adult population was literate.[6]
A teaching mission from Belgium arrived in the early 1900s and, over a thirty-year period, established a foundation for rural primary education.[6] In 1931 Elizardo Perez founded a large nuclear school (a central school with five to eight grades) near Lake Titicaca.[6] Smaller satellite schools in nearby settlements supplemented the nuclear school's offerings.[6] This arrangement became the prototype for rural education in the Andes.[6]
Overall, however, little real expansion of educational opportunities occurred.[6] A 1947 law calling for an end to illiteracy drew attention to the government's limited capacity for action in this area.[6] It required that every literate Bolivian teach at least one other to read and write and levied fines for adult illiteracy.[6] On the eve of the 1952 Revolution, less than one-third of the adult population was literate.[6]
Legislation in 1956 laid the foundation for the public education system in force in the late 1980s.[6] The government established a six-year primary cycle followed by four years of intermediate schooling and two years of secondary school ending with the baccalaureate degree.[6] Laws in 1969 and 1973 revised the curricula and instituted a five-year primary cycle, theoretically compulsory between the ages of seven and fourteen, followed by three years of intermediate school and four years of secondary education.[6] The first two years of secondary instruction consisted of an integrated program that all students followed; the second two-year cycle permitted students to specialize in the humanities or one of several technical fields.[6] All courses led to the baccalaureate degree, which was a prerequisite for entering the university.
Higher education consisted of the University of Bolivia and a variety of public and private institutes.[6] The University of Bolivia—a consortium of eight public universities and one private university (the 1,500-student Bolivian Catholic University)--was the only postsecondary school that awarded degrees.[6] At least four other private institutions were operating without legal authorization in 1989.[6] Other schools offered technical training in the fine arts, commercial arts, and technical fields, as well as in teacher training.[6]
The University of Bolivia, which enrolled more than 100,000 students in 1989, was embroiled in a bitter conflict with the Paz Estenssoro government over what academic leaders feared were government plans to make drastic cuts in publicly financed higher education.[6] The government acknowledged its plans to promote private institutions in an attempt to reverse a general decline in academic standards resulting from wide-open admission policies.[6] The impasse over university finances led to student protests in 1988, with police intervening in the country's largest university, the 37,000-student San Andrés University in La Paz.[6]
The Ministry of Education and Culture of Bolivia organized adult literacy classes.[6] By the mid-1980s, approximately 350 centers and more than 2,000 teachers were dedicated to children's literacy programs.[6] More than half were in the department of La Paz, where more than one-third of the population.[6] The program had little impact, however; improvements in the adult literacy rate, which stood at .1293% in the mid-1980s, primarily resulted from increased primary school enrollment.[6] From 1973 to 1987, the percentage of school-aged children enrolled in primary schools climbed from 76 to 87%.
Most educational expenditures went for operating budgets, especially personnel costs, leaving little for capital programs and expansion.[6] Spending remained skewed in favor of the urban areas.[6] Approximately 60% of Bolivia's 59,000 teachers were employed in urban schools.[6] The economic crisis that beset the country in the early to mid-1980s had a severe impact on educational spending.[6] Analysts estimated that real education expenditures in 1985 were less than 40% of the total recorded in 1980.[6] Over the same period, the percentage of the gross domestic product devoted to education dropped from 3% to less than 2%.[6]
Although the education system recorded some progress in enrollments in the 1970s and 1980s, serious problems remained as of the late 1980s.[6] The number of secondary school students grew twice as fast as the population of that age-group; the university student population grew more than four times faster than the total population of 18- to 24-year-olds.[6] Still, secondary education remained beyond the grasp of most Bolivians; only 35% of the eligible age-group attended secondary school.[6] Significant disparities also existed between male and female enrollment rates.[6] Efforts to increase female attendance ran up against the harsh economic realities faced by poorer families who relied on their daughters' help with chores and childcare.[6]
As of the late 1980s, dropout rates also remained extremely high.[6] Only one-third of first graders completed the fifth grade, 20% started secondary school, 5% began their postsecondary studies, and just 1% received a university degree.[6] Dropout rates were higher among girls and rural children.[6] Only about 40% of rural youngsters continued their education beyond the third grade.[6]
Education in El Salvador is regulated by the country's Ministry of Education. El Salvador consists of the following levels of education:
The education in Suriname was initially set up in analogy to the Dutch education system. In terms of structure, the education system is now a mixture of school types that were common in the Netherlands before, during and after the Mammoetwet. The language of instruction is Dutch; mainly Surinamese Dutch. The four exceptions to this rule are the International Academy of Suriname, administered by a local Christian foundation, Christian Liberty Academy, administered by the Caribbean Christian Ministries, and the AlphaMax Academy, a private nonsectarian school administered by the AlphaMax Foundation, and since 2011 Suriname International School, which provides k12 online school for high school students.
Education in Colombia includes nursery school, elementary school, high school, technical instruction and university education.
The educational system in Nepal was long based on home-schooling and gurukulas. This was similar to the former Indian system of education, in which the pupils would learn either in their homes or with reputed priests or Gurus. Before Nepal was declared a democratic country, the general public had no access to formal education. The first formal school, Durbar High School, established by Jung Bahadur Rana in 1854, was intended for the elite. The birth of Nepalese democracy in 1951 opened its classrooms to a more diverse population. Education in Nepal from the primary school to the university level has been modeled from the very inception on the Indian system, which is in turn the legacy of the old British Raj.
Education in Mozambique is organized by three main stages: primary education, secondary education and higher education. Although having a national public education system, several educational programmes and initiatives in Mozambique are mainly funded and supported by the international community.
Education in Nicaragua is free for all Nicaraguans. Elementary education is free and compulsory although this is not strictly enforced. Many children are not able to attend if their families need to have them work. Communities on the Atlantic Coast have access to education in both Spanish and the languages of the native indigenous tribes that live in the more rural areas of Nicaragua. Higher education has financial, organic and administrative autonomy, according to the law. Freedom of subjects is recognized. The school year runs from February through November.
Practically all children attend Quranic school for two or three years, starting around age five; there they learn the rudiments of the Islamic faith and some classical Arabic. When rural children attend these schools, they sometimes move away from home and help the teacher work his land.
During Alfredo Stroessner Mattiauda’s presidency (1954–89), education initiatives took a backseat to economic concerns and the task of controlling political adversaries, and teacher salaries fell to extremely low levels. The constitution of 1992 attempted to remedy the long neglect of education. Article 85 of the constitution mandates that 20% of the government budget be designated for educational expenditures. This measure, however, has proven to be impractical and has been largely ignored.
In 2005, the literacy rate in Laos was estimated to be 73%.
Education in Angola has six years of compulsory education, under the Angolan Education Law (13/01) of 31 December 2001. Basic adult literacy continues to be low, but there are conflicting figures from government and other sources. It is difficult to assess literacy and education needs. According to 2015 estimates, the literacy rate in Angola is 71.1% . On the other hand, the university system has been developing considerably over the last decade.
Education in Ivory Coast continues to face many challenges. Among sub-Saharan African countries, Ivory Coast has one of the highest literacy rates. According to The World Factbook - Central Intelligence Agency as of facts. The literacy rate for adults remains low: in 2000, it was estimated that only 48.7% of the total population was literate. Many children between 6 and 10 years are not enrolled in school, mainly children of poor families. The majority of students in secondary education are male. At the end of secondary education, students can sit the Baccalauréat examination. The country has universities in Abidjan, Bouaké, and Yamoussoukro.
In the Dominican Republic, education is free and compulsory at the elementary level, and free but non-mandatory at the secondary level. It is divided into four stages:
Education in Guatemala is free and compulsory for six years. Guatemala has a five-tier system of education starting with primary school, followed by secondary school and tertiary education, depending on the level of technical training. 83.3% of the population age 15 and over is literate. The official language of instruction is Spanish as mandated by the Education Law in 1965 when Spanish became the official language of Guatemala.
Education in Honduras is essential to the country of Honduras, for the maintenance, cultivation, and spread of culture and its benefits in Honduran society without discriminating against any particular group. The national education is secular and founded on the essential principles of democracy, inculcating and fomenting strong nationalist sentiments in the students and tying them directly to the economic and social development of the nation. Honduras's 1982 Constitution guarantees the right to education, a right also conveyed through the National Constituent Assembly's Decree 131 and in the official daily publication La Gaceta.
Education in St. Lucia is primarily based on the British education system and is provided in public and private schools.
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Education is compulsory in Burundi for the six years between the ages of seven and 13. Theoretically, primary education is free at point of use.
Public education in the Central African Republic is free, and education is compulsory from ages 6 to 14. AIDS-related deaths have taken a heavy toll on teachers, contributing to the closure of more than 100 primary schools between 1996 and 1998.
Education in Lesotho has undergone reforms in recent years, meaning that primary education is now free, universal, and compulsory.
Education in Togo is compulsory for six years. In 1996, the gross primary enrollment rate was 119.6 percent, and the net primary enrollment rate was 81.3 percent. Primary school attendance rates were unavailable for Togo as of 2001.
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