Education in Nicaragua

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.

[6] Institutions of higher learning can offer two- or three-year courses in technical and vocational education.

[8] Agriculture, medicine, education, and technology grew at the expense of law, the humanities, and the social sciences.

[8] A 1980 literacy campaign, using secondary school students as volunteer teachers, reduced the illiteracy rate from 50% to 23% of the population.

[8] (The latter figure exceeds the rate of 13% claimed by the literacy campaign, which did not count adults whom the government classified as learning impaired or otherwise unteachable.

[8] Using materials and pedagogical advice provided by the ministry, residents of poor communities met in the evenings to develop basic reading and mathematical skills.

[8] The key large-scale programs of the Sandinistas included a massive National Literacy Crusade (March–August 1980), social program, which received international recognition for their gains in literacy, health care, education, childcare, unions, and land reform.

[9][10] One of the hallmarks of Sandinista education (and favored target of anti-Sandinista criticism) was the ideological orientation of the curriculum.

[8] After the 1990 election, the Chamorro government placed education in the hands of critics of Sandinista policy, who imposed more conservative values on the curriculum.

[8] A new set of textbooks was produced with support from the United States Agency for International Development (AID), which had provided similar help during the Somoza era.

[8] Despite the Sandinistas' determined efforts to expand the education system in the early 1980s, Nicaragua remained an undereducated society in 1993.