Public Elementary Education in Peru

Abstract

pERU is located on the Pacific coast of South America, almost due south of New York. The country is the third largest on the continent and has a population in excess of eight million. The lofty Andes Mountains which parallel the 1,400-mile coast line divide the country into three welldefined zones known as the coast, the sierra (highlands), and the so-called montafia or selva (forest tropical region). The narrow coastal belt is much like a desert except where it is crossed by more than fifty streams. These irrigated sections are the principal agricultural areas, where cotton and sugar, two of the main crops, are grown. One-fourth of Peru's population lives in this region. The sierra covers more than one-fourth of the total area and contains over three-fifths of the population. The mines which provide important Peruvian exports are located here. The montafia comprises more than three-fifths of the area but only 13 per cent of the population, half of which consists of Indian tribes. This area is covered by tropical growth and is comparatively undeveloped. The development of a public education system has faced many problems in a country as large and varied in its topography and racial characteristics as Peru. Historically, Peru and other Spanish colonies suffered from a policy of isolation imposed by the government of Spain. During the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, Peru was kept in comparative ignorance of educational developments and doctrines that arose and declined in Europe. Its educational system has been influenced principally from three sources: the Spanish inheritance and the French and North American cul-