Nicaragua

Daniel Ortega

President

Lilliam Herrera

Minister of Education

# Population

6.625 M

# Students

1.799.151

# Teachers

50.378

# Schools

10.812

Average score in mathematics TERCE and ERCE

Average score in reading TERCE and ERCE

Completition and mean of schooling

Evolution of access to basic resources

Evolution of enrollment

Evolution of inequality

Expense

Evolution of poverty

GDP and growth

Government expenditure on education

Per pupil expenditure

Political participation index

Population by age and gender (2020)

Percentage of poverty by age and gender (2014)

Percentage of extreme poverty by age and gender (2014)

Political context

Nicaragua declared independence in 1821. In 1985 the first free elections were held in the context of the Sandinista Popular Revolution that in 1979 led to the overthrow of the dictator Anastasio Somoza Debaye. Since 2007, the ruling party (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional) has represented the people of Nicaragua with consistent educational policies of restitution of human and social rights over the last thirteen years (2007-2020).

Economic and social context

According to the National Institute for Development Information (INIDE), the country has an estimated total population of 6,518,478 (2020).

The official language is Spanish, but there are also other languages such as Creole, Miskito, Rama, Sumo, and a score of uncatalogued languages.

Educational context

The General Education Law No. 582, passed in 2006, establishes that the national education system is made up of the basic, secondary and teacher training subsystem, the technical education and vocational training subsystem, the higher education subsystem, the regional autonomous education subsystem of the Nicaraguan Caribbean Coast (SEAR) and the out-of-school education subsystem.

On 11 January 2007, Ministerial Agreement No. 018-200724 came into force, establishing the return of the right to free public education, which had been violated by the neoliberal policies implemented from 1990 to 2006 and which had a negative impact on the quality of the Nicaraguan education system. The education policies declared as of January 2007 expressed the will of the Government of the Republic of Nicaragua to transform basic and secondary education. These were framed within the legal foundations of education, the diagnosis of the situation of basic and secondary education and the political axes of the new government’s programme.

Source :

Otero, D.,(2021). Country Review , Desafíos y oportunidades en el sistema educativo en Nicaragua, Santiago de Chile: SUMMA

SITEAL Nicaragua (2019) : https://siteal.iiep.unesco.org/sites/default/files/sit_informe_pdfs/siteal_ed_nicaragua_20190517.pdf

Photo credit: GPE KIX

Select Indicators

Learn more about the country and the region!

Select and visualise different dimensions, variables, indicators and countries by scrolling through a time range of 20 years, which you can download and share.