POR ERIN GALLEGOS La Evolución de Educación Nicaragüense

Pre-Sandinista Era Education During Somoza regime, schooling and education not made priorities Limited funds to the impoverished Implied that youth was forced into labor market Secondary schools too expensive for impoverished

Pre-Sandinista Era Education (before 1979) Only 65% school-age children in primary school (nicaragua.com) 22% completed 6 years of primary school (nicargaua.com) Surprisingly, 8% of population enrolled in the University (nicargaua.com) 75% of rural population illiterate (nicaragua.com) 50% of total population illiterate (nicargua.com)

1979- Sandinista Era Education becomes a priority Education used to create national unity Ratio of GNP spent on education is doubled (nicaragua.com) (Photo: Carly Hilo)

Sandinista Era National Literacy Campaign 1980 Successful movement promoting literacy, and social and political awareness/participation Secondary school students from Popular Literacy Army (EPA) volunteer as teachers Reduced illiteracy from 50% to 23% (countrystudies.us) Popular Education Cooperatives Started by Ministry of Education Ministry provided supplies and resources Poor communities gathered together to develop reading and mathematics skills

Higher Education During Sandinista Era Higher education becomes more accessible College enrollment increases from 11, 142 in 1978 to 38,570 in 1985 (countrystudies.us) Law, humanities, and science subjects are substituted with agriculture, medicine, education, and technology subjects to cater to Nicaraguan industries

Problems with Education Sandinista Ideological and Nationalistic curriculum Pro-revolutionary textbooks Focus on Sandinista heroes and governmental goals (Photo: Andrew Keltner) Less Funding Contra Wars led to more spending on military expenses Difficult to keep up with growing population

Reforms 1990-Violeta Chamorro Supported by UNO (Unión Nacional Opositora) Produced more conservative textbooks Advocated educational development Decentralized education system (less funding)

Recent Problems At end of Sandinista era, ¾ of student-age citizens were not enrolled in secondary school (countrystudies.us) Decline in literacy rate from the 1980’s Nicaragua still undereducated population ,000 Nicaraguan children out of 1,550,00 did not finish their primary school year (fsdinternational.org)

Current Statistics Literacy Rate: 67.5% 67.2% males (cia.gov) 67.8% females (cia.gov) Education Expenditure: 3.1% of GDP 143/182 countries (cia.gov) However, overall school enrollment has increased since 1979 and schools are more accessible

EN CONTRA DE LAS ESTADISTICAS Mis Experiencias

La Escuela

Los Uniformes

La Librería

Al Dentro de la Escuela

La Clase

El Horario

Sources Photos courtesy of: Carly Hilo Andrew Keltner Google Images