Peru Education Profile 2012

Though the García government is conscious of the structural problems of Peru’s educational system and has initiated reforms, the performance of the education sector has remained low. Education and training facilities are available in important segments, but they vary widely in quality. Despite increasing school enrollment numbers, the sector remains a significant obstacle to Peru’s further development in all areas. The state’s expenditures for education since the 1990s have stalled at about 3% of GDP (2.8% in 2007 and 3.1% in 2008). A 2007 report of the World Bank, which evaluated its own assistance programs between 1990 and 2005, confirmed the low quality of Peru’s educational services and highlighted the challenges facing the García government. The report concludes that while Peru has reached high levels of incorporating its population into primary education and rather high completion rates for marginalized urban and rural youth, it spends relatively little on its primary education system. The costs per pupil are among the lowest in Latin America; Peru’s teachers are paid among the lowest in the region relative to per capita income and compared to other public servants; and Peruvian students score very low on international achievement tests.

The García government intends to reform the entire education sector, but progress is slow. One important step had been the evaluation of all teachers in 2007 and 2008 in order to assess the quality of Peruvian schools. This led to conflicts with the powerful teachers’ union SUTEP, but in the end the government carried out its plan. Another step in the reform process was the modification of the distribution key for budgetary funds, which until 2007 were allocated to Peruvian schools on the basis of teacher numbers alone. This meant that schools in rich areas always received more money – a practice that only exacerbated the country’s education gap. Following the example of its neighbor Ecuador, the government boosted funding for the primary school sector to $90 million in a supplementary budget for 2008. In addition, criteria such as population figures, the region’s poverty rate, the condition of school facilities and the number of classes and pupils are now the key factors in allocating funds. By the end of June 2008, over 40,000 schools set to benefit from this program. The funds are now transferred directly to a school’s head teacher, who is responsible for how they are used. Two newly established committees, consisting of representatives from parents’ associations and the mayor’s office, work to ensure that the allocation of funds is carried out appropriately.

Definite shortcomings continue in research and development, with expenditures at around 0.1% of GDP. Except for a few extractive industries, Peru’s technology standards – and, thus, its productivity – are low. This is the result, in large part, to the low quality of its tertiary education system and the relatively small number of technology specialists. Most technology comes from imports of machinery and equipment. Only a small (albeit growing) portion of local firms acquire technology through licensing, turnkey projects or technical specifications embedded in export contracts. As part of its national export strategy, the government has launched various initiatives to raise technological standards in specific sectors such as textiles, jewelry, aquaculture and fisheries. The scale and impact of these initiatives have been limited thus far.

A modern infrastructure does not extend nationwide but is limited to certain segments and enclaves (major cities, modernized economic sectors). This deficit is particularly severe in transportation, electricity and water and ranks as a major obstacle to further development, especially in the rural and agrarian sectors. The Andes and Amazonas regions are most significantly affected. Because of its solid macro-economic management and budgetary policy, the government was able to boost public investment in infrastructure, which had been low for years. It initiated some infrastructure projects like electrification in the Andes region, which will show its effects in the long run.