National Overview: El Salvador
Definition of Literacy -- Anyone over the age of 10 can read and write.
Written or Oral Language – Written and oral Spanish and Nahuatl
Literacy rate -- The literacy rate in 2003 for adults (15 and older) was 79.7 % and for youths (ages 15-24) was 88.9 %. The adult female literacy rate from 2000-2004 was 77 % and for males during the same period was 82 %.
Overview of Education -- While education has made progress in El Salvador over the last 50 years, there are still great disparities in access, resources and quality of education. The inequalities are greatest between rural and urban areas and between those with the money for private education and those who attend public institutions. A lot of data does not exist for various aspects of education in El Salvador. The country has implemented new initiatives in the last 10 years to try and improve the quality of education, but statistics still are not available regarding the success (or lack thereof) of the intitiatives.
Total expenditure on education -- $4,852,500,000; 15% of GNP
Script/Alphabet used -- Spanish uses the Roman Alphabet and is read left to right. Originally Nahuatl used pictographs, until the Spanish introduced the Roman Alphabet. It is still largely more of a language to be orally used than read.
Occupational distribution -- Services 65.8 %, Agriculture 17.1 %, Industrial 17.1%
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School Structure
Preschool:
Length: 1-2 years
No standardization, as it’s not part of the State’s Educational System
Primary School/ Basic Education:
Length: grades 1-9
Age level: 7 – 15 years old
1st Cycle: 1st – 3rd grades
2nd Cycle: 4th – 6th grades
3rd Cycle: 7th – 9th grades
Transition period-specialized teachers for each assignment
Academic Diploma Secondary School:
Length: 2 years
Age level: 16 - 17 years old
High School Degree/General Bachelor’s Degree
Vocational Diploma Secondary School:
Length: 3 years
Age level: 16 – 18 years old
Technical High School Degree/Technical Bachelor’s
Degree
Higher Education:
University of El Salvador (UES) is the only public university.
Oscar Romero University
Central American University of José Simeón Cañas
University of Don Bosco
Public or private schools and compulsory or optional -- Attendance is compulsory-7 years old to 17 or 18 years old
Private secondary school claims around 55% of the students, with the students attending either religious institutions specializing in academics or secular schools more focused on commercial subjects. Religious schooling tends to be pricier and is seen as being a superior educational experience. Secondary public schools have a curricula with a full range.
School Attendance -- 90%-primary school, 28.5%-secondary school
Percent Education level achieved -- 69% reach 5th grade
Post-Secondary Opportunities -- Only 16% of the population has a high school diploma or higher.
Pupil to teacher ratio -- For primary school, the ratio is 28 students to 1 teacher.
Method of instruction and Subjects/Curriculum -- Subjects include mathematics, language, reading, science, civics, literature, natural sciences, and social studies.
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Culture of Classroom
Physical Environment -- Rural schools are not always large enough to accommodate the number students that are eligible to attend school. Even when they are though, often too many students are unable to attend. The facilities are outdated and in need of repair. Books and materials, when present, are of poor quality and often older. This is particularly true for public schools. Private schools tend to be better equipped and up-to-date, but most of them are located in the urban areas. Access to labs, computers and libraries follow the same trend-the likelihood of access increases with proximity to a city and for those attending private schools.
Culture of classroom including discipline – Shame is a common tactic used to discipline a child, even in the classroom.
Parent involvement/Parent Role in Education -- In EDUCO schools (see Progress below) is the Parents’ School Program which provides monthly classes for parents to gain skills in helping their children at home and learn more about the management of the schools.
Accommodations -- It appears that El Salvador still has a lot work to do to accommodate those students with special needs. Very little was found regarding this topic other than the need to address this issue by the government.
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Access to Education
Educational barriers -- Rural areas have a poorer quality of education than is offered in urban settings, even though illiteracy rates are higher in the countryside. In terms of secondary education, half of the resources are spent in the Department of San Salvador, even though it has less than one-third of the enrollment. Besides resources being unevenly distributed, so is access to secondary institutions. For 90 % of the public schools and 98 % of the private schools are urbanely situated.
In general in El Salvador, secondary education suffers from imbalances in allocation of finances. Public resources are limited, hence the high number of private schools, and what public funds are made available are not spent evenly. Salaries account for more than 90 % of the budget, so all other areas, including materials, building maintenance, etc, suffer.
Gender access -- Females have a lower attendance rate, particularly in rural areas.
Socio-political influences -- El Salvador experienced civil unrest in the 1980s, and as a result most sectors of the country suffered, including education. The country has slowly been increasing its educational expenditure and making moves to improve the educational system, but it has been slow.
Different sources report different information about access to education. For example, the Immigrant website reports that school is free, yet other sources claim that the State’s education has a fee for those who can afford it (one payment per family) and those who can’t afford the payment attend for free.
It is agreed upon by all sources that there is a disparity between the education in rural areas and urban settings. Not only the money put into teachers, resources and the physical facilities varies, but there is also an inequality in who attends school and for how long. In rural areas, it is more common for students to leave in their early teens to work (in support of their families), and many students can’t afford to attend secondary school. As private school is the most common form of secondary education, there are many out-of-pocket expenses such as school fees and textbooks that are too much for some families to fund, primarily rural families. These reasons contribute to such a low secondary enrollment rate.
Progress
In 1992 a program of basic reform under the Ministry of Education was implemented. More recently has been a 10 year plan, from 1995-2005, to increase access to education, improve the quality of education and reform educational management.
Also in 1992 was the formation of Educacion con participacion de la communidad (EDUCO). This was an innovation for it was the first time that the Educational Ministry began to work with local communities. EDUCO schools are non-formal primary schools that are located particularly in rural areas. EDUCO involves the community a great deal from being responsible for hiring and monitoring teachers to maintaining the schools.
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Sources
“At a glace: El Salvador.” http://www.unicef.org./infobycountry/elsalvador_statistics.html
Castellanos, Teresa. “Knowledge of Immigrant Nationalities of Santa Clara County (KIN)-El Salvador.
16 June 2002. http://www.immigrantinfo.org/kin/elsalvador.htm
“CIA-The World Factbook-El Salvador.” 6 June 2005.
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos.es.html
“Community-Managed Schools Programme (EDUCO)-El Salvador.” Source: Government of El Salvador.
http://www.logos-net.net/ilo/150_base/en/init/sal_3.htm
“Education in El Salvador.” 21 November 2005. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_El_Salvador
“El Salvador.” http://hdr.undp.org/statistics/data/cty/cty_f_SLV.html
“El Salvador.” http://www.everydayculture.com/Cr-Ga/El-Salvador.html
“El Salvador Education.” 10 November 2004.
http://www.photius.com/countries/el_salvador/society/el_salvador_society_education.html
Stephens, Maria. “Activities to Measure Learning Outcomes in Developing Countries: Results of an
Exploratory Survey.” August 2005. www.equip123.net/docs/e2-LearningOutcomesWP.pdf
“Summary Education Profile: El Salvador.” http://devdata.worldbank.org/edstats
Winter, Carolyn. “Secondary Education in El Salvador: Education Reform in Progress.” Prepared for Latin American and Caribbean Sector Human Development. 15 January 1999. www1.worldbank.org/education/ secondary/documents/Winter.pdf
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Last Revised
02 October 2006
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