Education in Bolivia

[6] In the colonial era, education was limited to a few clergy acting as tutors for the sons of elite families.

[6] Independence brought a series of ambitious decrees calling for universal, compulsory primary education and a public school system; nonetheless, little was accomplished.

[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] 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] 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 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.

Most educational expenditures went for operating budgets, especially personnel costs, leaving little for capital programs and expansion.

[6] The economic crisis that beset the country in the early to mid-1980s had a severe impact on educational spending.

[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] 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.