Paraguay

Basic Data
Official Country Name:	Republic of Paraguay
Region:	South America
Population:	5,585,828
Language(s):	Spanish, Guarani
Literacy Rate:	92.1%
Academic Year:	March-November
Number of Primary Schools:	5,928
Compulsory Schooling:	6 years
Public Expenditure on Education:	4.0%
Educational Enrollment:	Primary: 895,777
	Secondary: 327,775
	Higher: 42,302
Educational Enrollment Rate:	Primary: 111%
	Secondary: 43%
	Higher: 10%
Teachers:	Primary: 41,713
Student-Teacher Ratio:	Primary: 21:1
	Secondary: 12:1
Female Enrollment Rate:	Primary: 109%
	Secondary: 45%
	Higher: 11%

History & Background

A relatively small, poor, under populated, subtropical, landlocked country located near the geographical core of South America, Paraguay was originally inhabited by numerous Amerindian tribes, semi nomadic peoples linked by the Guaraní language. The modern country traces its origins to sixteenth-century settlements by Spanish explorers, accompanied by Catholic priests; these two groups introduced the Spanish language and early patterns of parochial education that have remained influential throughout Paraguay's history.

Juan de Salazar founded Asunción, the capital and major city, in 1537. Independence from both Spain and Argentina, Paraguay's larger neighbor to the southeast and southwest, came in 1811. During its postcolonial epochs, Paraguay has struggled with social, political, and economic problems that have inhibited the establishment of an effective educational system. The coup of 1989 that ended dictatorial government has brought the promise of reform, but unsettled politics have delayed substantive improvements in an underdeveloped educational system.

Economic & Demographic Influences: Paraguay, with no coastline, has commercial access to the outside world only by means of the Parana-Paraguay River system. The country's historical backwardness reflects in part its geographic isolation. In addition to Argentina, Paraguay's other contiguous neighbors are Brazil, to the north and east, and Bolivia, to the west and northwest. Other important towns are Encarnación, Ciudad del Este, Pedro Juan Caballero, Concepción, Coronel Oviedo, and Villarrica.

Slightly smaller than California, the country has geographic borders that are mainly rivers. The Paraguay River divides it into two dissimilar regions—the Oriental (East), or Paraguay proper, and the Occidental (West), a mostly inaccessible region called the Chaco, inhabited by 5 percent of the population. With just 6 percent arable land, Paraguay is 55 percent pasture and 32 percent forest. It remains one of South America's least populated areas, second only to Bolivia; historically its rate of urbanization (35.7 percent in 1965) has also been the continent's second lowest. Over half the economically active population in 1950 was involved in agriculture, and about 70 percent of the land was in holdings of small plots, 10 hectares or less. A tiny 1.1 percent of the population, as large landholders, held 87 percent of utilized land at mid-century. By the late 1990s, with a labor force of 1.8 million workers, 45 percent of the workers were still involved in agriculture. The only large city, Asunción, had by then a population of over a half million. Urban and rural population in Paraguay were roughly equal, and migrations into and out of the country roughly canceled each other out.

About 60 percent of the people still live in small country villages, but about 70 percent of all citizens reside within 120 miles (193 kilometers) of Asunción—a pattern of population clustering that assures the city's cultural dominance and has made it the natural site for the country's universities and major high schools.

During much of the twentieth century, Paraguay of all South American countries recorded the lowest rate of auto possession, the fewest miles of road, the second fewest miles of railroads, the lowest rate of telephone ownership, and the lowest use of electrical energy. Parts of the country are still inaccessible by phone or auto. In the 1990s, modern urban systems of waste disposal were still not fully adequate, and water pollution remained a problem. A 1996 estimate of urban unemployment was 8.2 percent, and rural unemployment was a great deal higher.

Paraguay's deficit economy, agrarian with a large informal sector including active traffic with Argentina and Brazil in illegally recycled imported goods, and with the prevalence of various kinds of underground micro businesses, has also hindered educational progress—as has economic dependence upon neighboring Argentina. In earlier eras Europeans and Argentines acquired vast land holdings, and before 1930 foreign owners had drained off money. At the time of World War II Asunción had no water or sewer system, no fire department, and no paved streets.

The feudal system of ownership, with fewer than one half of one percent of landholders holding three-quarters of the farmlands, has retarded democracy and progress.

The Populace: Historically, at various times, the government of Paraguay has encouraged the settlement of Mennonites from Canada and the United States and of Germans, Russians, and Middle Europeans. Nonetheless, Paraguayans have remained remarkably homogeneous, with at least 90 percent being mestizo (a mixture of Spanish and Guaraní-speaking Amerindian) and the rest mostly a mix of other white and Amerindian backgrounds. The country's estimated population of 5,300,000 in 1998—up from 4,120,000 in 1989 and 1,817,000 in 962—comprised 39 percent children ages 1 to 14; 56 percent adults ages 15 to 64; and 5 percent seniors ages 65 and older. The population growth rate in 1998 was 2.68 percent annually, with 32 births and 5 deaths per 1,000 people—and with an infant mortality rate of about 37 deaths per 1,000 live births. Average life expectancy in the country was 72.23 years in 1998, when the average Paraguayan female bore 4.26 children. This high birth rate and relatively young population, statistically speaking, have strained resources for schools.

During the period 1870-1928, between the wars, a debilitated country that had lost much of its male population and had many orphaned children withstood a succession of about 40 mostly corrupt dictators. The egregious numeric gender imbalance after 1870 triggered a pattern of family organization that put women in charge of households, with few marriages; though a numeric balance of the sexes has been restored, the country still has a 50 percent illegitimacy rate, with many unstable family structures.

Political History: Though independent since 1811, Paraguay has endured nearly two centuries of political instability marked by intermittent civil strife. Until 1870 dictators controlled the country, and thereafter, into the 1930s, elite cadres, both Conservatives and Liberals, ruled. Since 1939, a succession of autocratic presidents holding five-year terms has governed. This pattern of personal rule lasted until 1989. General Alfredo Stroessner, the durable "elected" chief of state after 1954, was a virtual dictator who saw Paraguay as defenseless and thus in need of constant military readiness. As an ardent opponent of Communism—a label that he used to brand almost any opposition—Stroessner had the economic and political support of the United States. President Nixon praised him in 1958. During his regime, the government in the name of anticommunism restricted personal freedoms and largely isolated Paraguay from the outer world. The Stroessner government censored the press but did allow opposition papers wide latitude. More than half the public treasury went to support the military, with the education budget running a distant second.

A 1989 military coup ended Stroessner's 34-year period of control. The military itself remained a strong force throughout the 1990s, and an attempted military coup was suppressed on May 18, 2000.

The Stroessner regime did make some material progress, building some schools as well as stabilizing the currency, increasing exports, and improving public services and roads. Most rural areas in Paraguay still had no effective formal patterns of public education as late as the 1960s, when one scholar called the state "a poor and frightened land." Perhaps a quarter of its people were then still unable to read or write at even a minimal level.

Overshadowed by the country's militarism and confused politics, the educational history of Paraguay has always effectively been pushed into the background.

Constitutional & Legal Foundations

Early in the twentieth century the twin legal foundations of public education in Paraguay were the law of 22 July 1909 and Article 8 of the Constitution, both mandating compulsory primary instruction for all children ages 5 to 14. That pattern has nominally persisted.

Under the constitution of 1967 as amended in 1977, the country was divided into 19 administrative departments with little autonomy, especially because the Paraguayan national government held the purse strings. Subdivisions of the departments are municipalities and rural districts called partidos. A national bureaucracy dominates public education, which has a heavily centralized administration.

The traditional ruling party in Paraguay, the National Republican Party or Colorado Party—has been the one to which all civil servants belonged and has remained a component of Paraguay's government even after the 1989 coup. Opposition parties have participated in elections since the 1980s. In 1999, peacefully elected President Luis Gonzalez Macchi presided over Paraguay's first coalition government and promised ambitious economic and institutional reforms that would, if enacted, benefit education. But the constitution of 1992 did not end intermittent chaos at the highest government levels.

Since the 1960s the universities have enjoyed autonomy, so that the government or army cannot seize a university, and students have immunity from arrest. Though such protection is largely technical because university funding is from the government itself, leaders throughout South America have tended to respect and to some degree fear student power as far back as the student revolt at the University of Córdoba in Argentina just after World War I, an incident that had far-reaching effects throughout the continent.

Educational System—Overview

In Paraguay at the beginning of the millennium, perhaps as few as 28 percent of the children will advance to secondary school, and one percent will earn university degrees. Some democratic mobility through education does occur.

During the colonial era, the upper class had sole access to formal education. Wealthy families hired tutors or sent children abroad. A few private schools operated after 1811 but hardly thrived during the nineteenth century.

Early establishment of public education in Paraguay came after 1840 under President Carlos Antonio López, who, with Mariano Roque Alonso, overthrew the dictatorship of Rodriguez Francia (1814-1840). Joint-consuls López and Alonso promoted public education by establishing a secondary school in Asunción; they also freed the children of slaves born thereafter. But López proved dictatorial, and his son and successor hapless, plunging his weak country into a bloody war (1864-1870) with Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil. Boys of 12 fought in a Paraguayan army outnumbered 10 to 1. The war almost extinguished the male population of Paraguay and reduced the population from a half million to fewer than a quarter million people.

In 1870, in a devastated country, the literacy rate in Paraguay was perhaps as low as 14 percent.

Though education has been compulsory for children to age 14 since 1909, illiteracy was still high at mid-century. Official figures about literacy, which often conflict, gloss over the truth by counting anyone who attended primary school as literate. The literacy rate in 1962—counting citizens age 15 and over who could read and write—has been reported at just under 75 percent, though some figures suggest an illiteracy rate closer to half the population.

In any case, recent decades have shown some progress. During the 1970s and early 1980s, overall enrollment in schools grew at all levels. Reforms during the 1980s tried to improve the school systems, especially in rural areas, where inadequate facilities and materials and a lack of trained teachers were common. These reforms instituted multigrade programs to try to make better use of limited resources. In the early 1980s, more than 2,000 multigrade programs were reaching more than 55,000 students.

Such efforts seem to have had some effect. Official figures show that the literacy rate rose from 60 percent in 1960 to 80 percent by the late 1980s. Still, a mere one third of elementary students finished the first six grades, so functional literacy may not have been very high. The urban literacy rate, at an estimated 90 percent, was somewhat higher than it was outside the cities. The estimated rate in 1995 had increased to 92.1 percent, with the percentage for males (93.5 percent) being slightly higher than for females (90.6 percent).

In South America generally, where a tradition of a tripartite class structure operates, education has been the often-elusive means of the advancement of people out of the lower and into the middle class. Since the 1960s, somewhat improved education has fostered the emergence of a new "technical elite" class and has progressively moved some women into the educated and professional classes. By the 1960s women comprised a third of the work force in South America, and female university students had become commonplace. Paraguay, though relatively backward, has reflected these continental patterns.

Also on the favorable side, a tradition of respect for culture and education has existed throughout South America during the twentieth century, even among uneducated classes. In the 1960s, South American presidents included four military men, six intellectuals—lawyers, doctors, professors—and no professional politicians.

Church & State: As a country that is only 2 percent Protestant and that in 1998 was about 90 percent Roman Catholic, Paraguay has never embraced the principle of separation of church and state but does allow other religions to be practiced and to run schools. The constitution of 1870 designated Catholicism as the national religion; the Ministers of Justice, Worship, and Public Instruction were government officials; and conversion of the Indians to "Christianity and civilization" was a state-sponsored venture. In this parochial context, schools typically served jointly with churches as instruments of Catholic instruction. Several English Episcopalian missions operated in Paraguay by 1909 as part of the state-sponsored program of conversion.

As elsewhere in South America, Catholic priests—Franciscan Fathers—had accompanied the first conquerors in Paraguay. The earliest schools in the country, complements to the proselytizing efforts of the Fathers, date from the second administration of provincial governor Domingo Martinez de Irala (1542-57). The Jesuits gained official recognition in Paraguay from King Philip II of Spain in 1608 as part of the mission work of the disciples of Loyola; the expulsion of the Jesuit Fathers in 1767 under orders from Charles III ended a period of relative success at instructing the natives of the Chaco in Christianity. After 1811 and independence, the Church was firmly established, and throughout the nineteenth century—as elsewhere in South America—it became the primary educational agency in Paraguay. Even today, because of the strong and pervasive Church influence in government and social institutions, the distinction between state and church education in Paraguay is almost completely blurred. Private schools in Paraguay are likely to be Catholic.

With a traditional stranglehold on primary and secondary education, the Catholic Church in the 1960s extended its power to the university level in Paraguay and elsewhere. In the 1980s, in advance of the 1989 overthrow, a Paraguayan Peasant Movement and Catholic leaders both criticized Stroessner (who was in alliance with the Colorado Party). Pope John Paul II's visit in 1988 set up an occasion for antigovernment demonstrations in which intellectuals and poor farmers united to demand reform.

Guaraní & Spanish: The Bilingual Problem: Paraguay claims to be the only truly bilingual country in South America. Traditionally a large number of Paraguayans have spoken Guaraní, the indigenous tongue, rather than Spanish. In rural areas through the 1980s, an estimated 90 percent of children entered primary schools speaking Guaraní, which, especially outside Asunción, is the medium of daily exchange. Thus bilingualism has contributed to educational difficulties including widespread failure of students to complete Spanish-based educational programs, especially in the rural contexts.

In the late 1970s, the Ministry of Education and Worship recognized a crisis in rural education and responded by initiating a bilingual program to help native Guaraní-speaking children progressively gain oral and written skills in Spanish after entering school.

Literature in Guaraní remains available at the secondary and university levels, and materials printed in the indigenous language are available in the country.

Preprimary & Primary Education

In this poor country, preprimary education has not traditionally been a priority. For the most part, other needs that have seemed more pressing have taken precedence.

Slow but gradual progress in primary education has been the pattern during the late twentieth century. Student absenteeism and grade repetition have been common patterns, more so in rural than in urban schools.

At the beginning of 1909, when compulsory education in Paraguay started, 344 primary schools employed 756 teachers and served 40,605 pupils. Concurrently, private schools enrolled 2,000 to 3,000 students. Under the direction of the Ministry of Education and Worship, the primary program, free and compulsory for children ages 7 to 14, comprised one six-year cycle.

In the early 1970s, fewer than 5 percent of elementary school students in Paraguay finished the full six-year course of study, compared with 30 percent of urban students.

From 1975 to 1980, rapid growth occurred, with the number of students in attendance in primary schools increasing by about one-quarter. Much of this increase occurred in rural areas, where between 1972 and 1981 a one-third increase occurred. A 1980 study showed improvement in the percentage of students completing the elementary school cycle, with about 38 percent of all students finishing the program; the figure for rural students, 25 percent, remained well below that registered by urban students. In theory, six years of education was compulsory in Paraguay in 1982, as earlier, but many remote rural areas still lacked schools.

By 1984, a total of 560,000 students attended primary schools in Paraguay. But the proportion of enrolled school-age children actually declined or remained constant from 1965 to 1985. Statistics for 1989-1990 showed 4,411 schools and 31,590 teachers employed at the primary level (ages 7-12). A total of 656,877 students generated a student/teacher ratio of 20.8 to one.

Finding adequately trained teachers has long been a problem, especially in rural areas, where many teachers have been uncertified. Statistics for 1992 show only 28 percent of Paraguayans pursuing education past primary school.

Secondary Education

After independence in 1811, a secondary school was established but closed in 1822. Modest efforts in the mid-nineteenth century toward public education amounted to little. After 1877, when the first secondary school system was inaugurated, public education grew, producing a supply of graduates that justified the founding of the National University in 1889 and the first teacher-training school in 1896.

By 1909, five national "colleges" providing secondary instruction were located in Asunción, Villa Concepción, Villa Rica, Villa Encarnación, and Villa del Pilar. Additionally, two normal schools offered teacher training.

At the time of the Chaco War against Bolivia in the 1930s and 1940s, Paraguay had several teachers' colleges, a number of high schools, and a few technical schools. Before World War II, the educational system expanded, with enrollments nearly doubling. Expansion continued at the secondary level faster than at the primary level.

Secondary education was organized as two three-year programs, each leading to a baccalaureate degree. Students anticipating university admission or teacher training pursued the diversified program, with a focus in the humanities. Those with more limited academic abilities or more practical interests—including the pursuit of advanced training at one of a number of postsecondary schools offering programs in agriculture, commerce, or industry—took a three-year technical program in high school.

In the 1970s fewer than 1 percent of rural children finished secondary school programs, compared to 10 percent of urban students. From 1975 to 1980, the number of students in the basic secondary cycle grew from about 49,000 to about 76,000. By 1988, about one out of four children in Paraguay went on to secondary school: in that year, 165,373 students ages 13-18 enrolled in 812 schools. (Included in these figures are vocational students and those in teacher training.) These students were taught by 9,444 teachers, so that the student/teacher ratio was a bit better than that at the lower levels. Twenty-eight percent of students went to high school in 1992.

By the late 1980s, women made up fully half of all high school graduates. Paraguay has three Jesuit high schools, two in Asunción and one in Santa Rosa.

Higher Education

Larger numbers of graduates of both sexes since the 1980s have brought about relatively rapid growth in the universities. Paraguayan universities, like those in neighboring countries, have traditionally enjoyed prestige and a kind of power.

Because private endowment of higher education has been essentially nonexistent except from the Catholic Church, state support has been necessary—and inadequate. The public, tuition-free university has tended to be poor, with professors underpaid and students often having relative power. In North American terms, students have little campus life, with no fraternities or sororities. Higher education is serious in that students are grooming themselves to be members of professions. Examinations weed out all but a tiny handful of students, so that a small fraction of those who attend secondary school get into the two colleges. Thus holders of a university degree make up less than 1 percent of the total population and are guaranteed a place at the top of the political or economic hierarchies. Women now comprise about half of the university graduates.

Church universities increased numerically in South America in the 1960s: there were 13 such universities in the 1950s and 31 ten years later. Parochial schools generally enroll students from the better-off families. At such schools the teaching standards are higher, the discipline is more severe, the curriculum more rigorous, the professors better paid, the ambience more conservative. Though their orientation is sectarian, such schools have accepted Protestants and Jews since the 1960s and have had some non-Catholic teachers.

Predictably, of the two significant institutions of higher education in Paraguay, one is Catholic, the other, public. Both universities have main locations in Asunción, operate in Spanish, and require as qualifications for admission a bachillerato (secondary school certificate) or its equivalent plus an entrance examination. Both universities also have had branches since mid-century in several interior locales. The Catholic University charges tuition, while the state school is free.

The Universidad Católica "Nuestra Señora de la Asunción" (Catholic University of "Our Lady of Asunción"), which enjoys recognition by the federal government on the same basis as the public National University, was founded in 1960. The school's origins coincide with the widespread emergence in South America during the 1960s of specifically Catholic universities run by the church, a pattern fostered by the Church's general view that the public universities were leftist, unruly, and ineffectual. In the early 1990s, the school enrolled nearly 11,000 students and engaged an academic staff (including professors) of about 1,230. Degrees and diplomas offered included the Licenciado in philosophy, history, psychology, sociology, political science, diplomatic studies, accountancy, letters, mathematics, pastoral studies, business administration, education, and nursing and midwifery. The program in law requires six years. Postgraduate degrees include one in obstetrics, as well as the Máster en Administración de Empresas and the Doctorado.

Subdivisions in Catholic University's organization include the faculties of philosophy and human sciences (including political science and education), law and diplomatic studies, accountancy and business administration, science and technology (including architecture), and science and letters. An Institute of Theology, a School of Nursing, and four research centers complete the organizational system. Faculties of science and letters operate not only in Asunción but also in Villarrica, Encarnación, Concepción, Ciudad del Este (where the theology and nursing facilities also operate), and Pedro Juan Caballero. In addition, the University cooperates internationally with the Universities of Milan (Italy); Brussels (Belgium); Kansas (U.S.); La Plata (Argentina); Frankfurt-am-Main (Germany); and with Université catholique de l'Ouest (Angers). The Central Library of Catholic University housed 45,000 volumes in 1993. The University has its own press, the Publications Center of Catholic University (CEPUC, Centro de Publicaciones de la Universidad Católica) and in the early 1990s sponsored two publications, Revista del Centro de Estudios Antropológicos and Estudios Paraguayos (Revista de la Universidad).

The National University of Asunción, roughly double the size of Catholic University and more than twice as old, was founded in 1890 and granted autonomous status in 1919. By 1991 it had nearly 20,000 students and 1800 members on its academic staff, including professors. The organization of National University, which offers more advanced professional work than Catholic University, subdivides a dozen faculties under these rubrics: law and social sciences; philosophy (including communication sciences, education, and psychology); medicine; physics and mathematics (including civil, industrial, and electromechanical engineering); economics (including administration and accountancy); dentistry; chemistry (including pharmacy and food technology); agriculture; architecture; veterinary science; polytechnic; exact and natural sciences; and library science. Offering specialized study are the Institutes of Social Work (including nursing and midwifery), geographical sciences, electronic engineering, and languages (including English, French, Guaraní, and German). The University Library housed only 16,641 volumes in 1991 and was thus only about one-third the size of the Central Library of Catholic University, which itself had relatively limited holdings.

The National University offers degrees and diplomas that include the Licenciado in philosophy, mathematics, education, letters, history, exact sciences, physico-chemistry, natural sciences, public administration, and economics. Advanced programs and degrees requiring four, five, or six years of study beyond the Licenciado include those in education, dentistry, medicine, biochemistry and industrial chemistry, economics, law and social sciences, veterinary medicine, law, architecture, agronomy, civil engineering, and industrial engineering.

In the 1970s, both National University and Catholic University began offering various short-term degree programs to try to meet the increased student demand for admission and to reduce pressure on traditional professional courses of study.

The fastest growth of educational institutions in Paraguay during 1965-1985 occurred at the postsecondary level. In the early 1980s, the two universities together employed 2,694 teachers and enrolled 28,677 students, with about 20,000 of them at the National University. By 1984, some 33,000 were recorded as being enrolled on both campuses. National University had 19,400 and 3,200 teachers in 1987, whereas Catholic University had 10,400 students and 1,100 teachers.

Both universities operate on a March through November (or December) calendar, with a division into two terms: March through July and August through late fall.

In 2001, universities advertising on the Internet as accepting international students from abroad include not only the National University and Catholic University but also Universidad Autonoma de Asunción and Universidad del Norte, both also in the capital city. Photographs on various Internet web sites show up-to-date computer labs that are indicative of the entrance of Paraguay's institutions into the modern technological mainstream.

The "Seminario Conciliar," which was founded in Asunción in 1881 and graduated 60 priests before 1911, represents another type of institution that has long existed in Paraguay for the primary purpose of educating Catholics for service in church roles.

Administration, Finance, & Educational Research

Catholic University and National University enjoy equivalent federal recognition.

Catholic University, founded in 1960 by the Conferencia Episcopal del Paraguay, was later reorganized by the Sacred Congregation of Seminaries and University Studies. Heading Catholic University as its Grand Chancellor is the Archbishop of Asunción; the University's jointly governing bodies are the Consejo Universitario and the Consejo Administrativo. The National University, founded in 1890 and granted autonomous status in 1919, is financed by the State Governing Body and governed by the Consejo Superior Universitario—a group comprising the Rector, the dozen or so faculty deans, one alumnus, and one student.

The tradition of private economic support for mass education by means of personal or corporate endowment has never been generally established in Paraguay. Private schools, primarily Catholic, charge tuition. Government funds, supplemented by various user sources, have supported public education in the past, and still do. In the early 1980s, the budget of the Ministry of Education and Worship, which supervised elementary and high school education, was barely 15 percent of total government expenditures.

National Funding and national control of educa tion—not regional or local funding—is the norm in Paraguay. Heavy percentages of federal allocations have traditionally gone toward primary schooling. Urban schools in Paraguay typically get 90 percent of their support from government funds. Public secondary schools have received from half to three-quarters of their support from the national government, with the rest coming from various sources including users and locales.

Primary and secondary public schools have throughout the twentieth century remained under the supervision of the Ministry of Education and Worship, a central agency.

No indicators in 2001 suggest more than nominal developments in areas such as distance learning. Under funding and conservative patterns persist. Few substantive scientific activities exist except class instruction at the National University. The small size of the university libraries is telling, though the era of the Internet does now provide global access to resources in the more up-to-date schools.

Nonformal Education

The Academy of the Guaraní Language and Culture is one of two important institutes devoted to preserving the native culture. Many songs, folk poems, and publications use the indigenous language.

Educational exchanges are aspects of the educational system, both at the high school and college levels. In 2001, high schools listed as accepting international students for study included Centro Cultural Paraguay, Colegio Internacional, and Centro Cultural Paraguayo-Americano. Others were the American School of Asunción, Grace Educational Center, Asunción Christian Academy, Pan-American International School, and Centro Cultural Paraguay-Estados Unidos.

The Centro Cultural Paraguayo-Americano (BNC) sponsors cultural activities and has a 10,000-volume library with titles in both Spanish and English, including major Paraguayan authors. The Center teaches 1,500 students English and offers educational activities including lectures and seminars.

In 1997, Paraguay had 10 television stations. In 2001, the U.S. Peace Corps had some 180 volunteers working in Paraguay, some as teachers.

Teaching Profession

The first postsecondary facility for teacher training in Paraguay dates from 1896, and two normal schools for that purpose existed by 1909. A two-year postsecondary program in teacher training has been required for primary teachers, and an additional two years of specialized training for secondary teachers.

Retraining programs have been available through the Higher Institute of Education and in several regional centers.

Statistics commonly lump teacher training programs in Paraguay with other postsecondary enrollments and activities. Some teacher training occurs within regular university programs, especially for work as university professors in academic specialties.

Summary

Education in a poor country with scant native middle and upper classes is a primary means of achieving social mobility. Paraguay's long history of authoritarian government—with three dictators during the period 1814-1870, frequent changes in the presidency from 1870 to 1954, and Stroessner's political stranglehold on the country until 1989—has stunted progress in public education. The effect has been circular: a lack of democratic control has suppressed the cultivation of strong public school systems, and the absence of such systems has, in turn, kept down democracy by failing to train leaders and productive, engaged citizens. Political, geographical, ethnographic, and economic factors have all worked against education in Paraguay.

Five constitutions dated 1844, 1870, 1940, 1967, and 1992 chart the country's successive efforts toward self-determination. The June 1992 constitution, in the wake of the 1989 coup, has held out hope for educational reform, but ongoing problems have delayed implementation.

In a 1996 article in International Higher Education, Vincente Sarubbi argues that in Paraguay's post-1989 efforts to move toward democracy, a "true educational revolution will be necessary." A founding member of the Advisory Council of Education Reform in Paraguay and a former university teacher and newspaper director, Sarubbi notes the contemporary inadequacies of higher education in particular: "insufficient coverage, low levels of performance, insufficient and dated functions of the university, highly bureaucratized administration, inadequate moral and intellectual development of students, lack of professional teaching standards, and irrelevance of the curriculum for the purposes of production, government, and life in general." Specifically he calls for better scientific and technological education, for broader access to higher education, for more research and a "scientific culture" in universities, and for the development of inclusive and democratic attitudes within.

Many of Sarubbi's negative phrases might also describe the larger education picture in Paraguay at the beginning of the millennium. Still, in a more democratic and open climate than the country has ever enjoyed, the government now promises to broaden educational opportunities as a means of alleviating social deprivation and improving the quality of life in the country.

Bibliography

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). U.S. State Department Background Notes 1999. The World Factbook 1999. February 17, 2001. Available from http://www.worldrover.com/country/paraguay.

"Paraguay." International Handbook of Universities, 13th ed. Paris: The International Association of Universities, 1993: 722.

"Paraguay: Education." The Library of Congress Country Studies. Apri 2, 2001. Available from http://lcweb2.loc.gov/.

Sarubbi Zaldivar, Vincente. "Democracy and Higher Education in Paraguay." International Higher Education. (August 1996). February 27, 2001. Available from http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/soe/cihe/newsletter/News05/text8.html.

U. S. Department of State. Post Report: Paraguay. Publication No. 9170. 1994.

Worldwide Classroom: Paraguay Schools. February 27, 2001. Available from http://www.worldwide.edu/ci/paraguay/fschools.

—Roy Neil Graves