8 years

Education of Ecuador. Primary education is free and compulsory for six years beginning at age six. Ecuador has made progress in making education available to disadvantaged classes and ethnic groups and to women. Religious and nondenominational private schools also play a significant role.

American Schools in Ecuador

• Academia Cotopaxi. Website – Click Here!
• Alliance Academy International. Website – Click Here!
• American School of Quito. Website – Click Here!
• Colegio Alberto Einstein. Website – Click Here!
• Colegio Menor San Francisco de Quito. Website – Click Here!
• InterAmerican Academy. Website – Click Here!

The typical Ecuadorian school year runs from September to July. Classes are usually held from 7 am to 2 pm from Monday to Friday. There are about two and a half months of vacation in the summer (July–September), one week of vacation over Christmas/New Year, and one week at the end of the semester, usually in February.

The education system in Ecuador is very strong. There are over 100 secondary schools. Grades 7 – 9 are free. Thereafter parents must pay school fees if they would like their children to study further.

The majority of schools require students to wear a uniform (only a few private schools in Ecuador do not require a uniform). But the government uniforms are accepted at the public schools regardless.

There are 13 required subjects including Physics, Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Philosophy, Social Sciences, and English. Other classes depend on a student’s chosen concentration. Most schools offer a choice of three different concentrations: Math/Physics, Chemistry/Biology and Philosophy/Social studies.

Legal Status Homeschooling is legal under certain conditions as explained in the Acuerdo Ministerial 0067-13, including when a family lives far from an education institution and/or because of illness.

1,000 primary schools

Primary education begins at age 6 with the first grade and ends at age 12 with sixth grade. Secondary education consists of two three-year cycles, a basic cycle, and a diversified cycle.

What is Ecuador Famous For? Tucked away along the South American Eastern Coast, it falls along the equator. It is famous for the rich wildlife in its Amazonian rain forests and an extensive coastline full of many pristine beaches. It also shares a history with the ancient Inca civilization.

Ecuador is one of the countries that don’t require children to obtain an education. Consequently, lack of education is one of the main causes of poverty in Ecuador. More than 60 percent of the population lives near the poverty line. Because of this, child labor is one of the main sources of income for many of families.

In summary, Ecuador is a third-world country. It meets the standards that are currently used to describe third-world countries.

Ecuador faces chronic human rights challenges, including weak institutions, poor prison conditions, laws that give authorities broad powers to limit judicial independence, violence against women, far-reaching restrictions on women’s and girls’ access to reproductive health care, and disregard for indigenous rights.

Due to the severity and frequency to which the Amazon is being threatened, I assert that deforestation is the most important environmental issue in Ecuador. The second most pressing threat to the ecosystems in Ecuador is water pollution and contamination that mainly affects the coast of the country.

Crime rates in Ecuador

25 %

Esmeraldas

Ecuador poverty rate for 2018 was 24.20%, a 0.9% increase from 2017. Ecuador poverty rate for 2017 was 23.30%, a 0.7% decline from 2016. Ecuador poverty rate for 2016 was 24.00%, a 0.8% decline from 2015….Ecuador Poverty Rate 1994-2021.

But that income is distributed most unevenly. In Ecuador, the richest 10 percent control more than a third of all personal wealth. At the other end of the spectrum, the bottom 20 percent collect just 3.3 percent.

Exports: The top exports of Ecuador are Crude Petroleum ($7.85B), Crustaceans ($3.89B), Bananas ($3.43B), Processed Fish ($1.2B), and Refined Petroleum ($947M), exporting mostly to United States ($6.76B), China ($2.85B), Panama ($1.92B), Chile ($1.5B), and Peru ($993M).

“Ecuador is one of the most unstable countries in Latin America. There’s a recession, deep political instability, (and) in October 2019, there was a massive Indigenous uprising,” said Grace M. Jaramillo, an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia whose research includes Latin America.

Ecuador’s economic freedom score is 52.4, making its economy the 149th freest in the 2021 Index. Ecuador is ranked 27th among 32 countries in the Americas region, and its overall score is below the regional and world averages. Economic freedom has improved in Ecuador for two years in a row.