Education in Ecuador

Résumé du document

The Republic of Ecuador is a small democratic republic in South America, surrounded by Peru in the east and south, by Columbia in the North and the Pacific Ocean in the west. It has an area of 256,370 square kilometers, more than a third of the French area. Ecuador lies on the equator and its capital city is Quito, but the country's largest city is Guayaquil, with more than 3.3 million living in the metropolitan area of the city. Its total population is estimated at 13.6 million. It became independent in 1830 after having been part of the Spanish colonial Empire and the republic of Gran Colombia. It contains a lot of remnants of the old Inca Empire. It is a medium-income country with 38% of the people living below poverty line. Ecuador is one of the countries with the highest perceived rate of corruption.

Extraits

[...] Ecuador is crossed by the equator and its capital city is Quito, but the country's largest city is Guayaquil, with more than 3.3 million living in the metro area of that city. Its total population is estimated at 13.6 million. It became independent in 1830 after having been part of the Spanish colonial Empire and the republic of Gran Colombia. It contains a lot of remnants of the old Inca Empire. It is a medium-income country with 38% of the people living below the poverty line. Ecuador is one of the countries with the highest perceived rate of corruption. [...]

[...] This percentage of illiteracy is below the Latin American average. The public education system is nearly free, and attendance is mandatory from ages five to fourteen. But public education is very much out of favor since the class sizes are often very large because the amount of money spent on public education is not high enough to provide a good level of education to all children. Consequently, richer and more educated parents tend to send their children to private schools. [...]

[...] However, it must be noticed that there is no sexist discrimination in the field of education. Furthermore, even quite poor families are keen on paying for the education of their children. It is a good point that parents have realized that education is very important for the future of their children and of their country. Unfortunately, it seems that they are not enough high schools in rural areas or that they are too expensive because many students give up studies after the age of thirteen or fourteen. [...]