Education in El Salvador

Education in El Salvador follows a (1 or 2) -9-2-5 system:

• One or two years of preschool (called kinder, short for kindergarten), which are not part of the State's Educational System.

• Nine years of Basic Education divided in three Cycles of three grades each:
  • 1st Cycle: from 1st to 3rd grades,
  • 2nd Cycle: from 4th to 6th grades,
  • 3rd Cycle: from 7th to 9th grades, which is a transition time between primary and secondary education/high school (e.g. specialized teachers for each assignment).
• Two (or an optional three years technical program) of Middle Education:
  • Two year General Bachelor's Degree (High school Degree)
  • 
    
    (or an optional) Three year Technical Bachelor's Degree (Technical High school degree) (e.g. Accountancy, Computer Science, Secretary Degree, etc.)
• Five years (minimum) of university or other tertiary education.

However, the national educational system is not the only one available.

Pre-university education is not free. The State provides public education for which a fee is paid if the person paying can afford it and only one payment per family is made (i.e. siblings pay only one fee). Public education is nevertheless inconstant in quality, being even extremely poor in rural areas and not so good in urban areas.

The University of El Salvador (UES) is the largest of the three public Universities in the country.

In 2010, the literacy rate was 82% for both sexes^.

In 1992 the Ministry of Education under Cecilia Gallardo de Cano embarked on a program of reform of basic education.