Education in Bolivia

Education in Bolivia, as in many other areas of Bolivian life, has a divide between Bolivia's rural and urban areas.^[1] Rural illiteracy levels remain high, even as the rest of the country becomes increasingly literate.^[1] Bolivia devotes 23% of its annual budget to educational expenditures, a higher percentage than in most other South American countries, albeit from a smaller national budget.^[1] A comprehensive, education reform has made some significant changes.^[1] Initiated in 1994, the reform decentralized educational funding in order to meet diverse local needs, improved teacher training and curricula, formalized and expanded intercultural bilingual education and changed the school grade system.^[1] Resistance from teachers’ unions, however, has slowed implementation of some of the intended reforms.^[1][2]

The Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI)^[3] finds that Bolivia is fulfilling only 83.2% of what it should be fulfilling for the right to education based on the country's level of income.^[4] HRMI breaks down the right to education by looking at the rights to both primary education and secondary education. While taking into consideration Bolivia's income level, the nation is achieving 85.7% of what should be possible based on its resources (income) for primary education but only 80.7% for secondary education.^[5]