November-December 1957

The education system in Centroamérica leaves a lot to be desired. It is a patchwork affair, with the old, pre-unification school systems of the constituent republics existing more or less unchanged. It is difficult for businesses and residents of one republic to judge the interchangeability of educational qualifications from different republics. One republic may teach one thing, while the other may exclude it from the curriculum entirely, or teach it at a much later time than others, which can put students at a significant disadvantage relative to their peers if they move from one republic to another. This variance has significantly complicated efforts by the union government to introduce a more rigorous, standardized curriculum across the republics. All of this is without discussing the issue of language education in an officially bilingual country, which is to be handled elsewhere.

Under the 1953 Constitution, primary and secondary education are one of the powers devolved to the constituent republics. This was one of the key compromises for the republics--especially the Republics of Chiapas and Yucatán--to agree to the union. Unfortunately, this makes standardizing the education system in the country complicated, as the union government cannot simply will changes into existence. Rather, it must find a way to convince (or more impolitely, coerce) the constituent republics to adopt the changes that they want.

The carrot the union government finally settled on was the one level of education that was under their control: tertiary education. In late 1957, the Centroamerican government announced that all public universities in Centroamérica would be tuition free going forward. However, applicants will be required to sit for a strenuous entrance exam known as the Evaluación de Acceso a la Universidad (Evau). Furthermore, while the Constitution provides that the actual management of primary and secondary education are in the power of the constituent republics, the union government can mandate that the republics provide education up to a certain level--say, twelve grades.

These backdoors afford the union government a significant amount of indirect control over the curricula and structure of the republican school systems. By mandating that republics must offer twelve years of free, compulsory education, the union government can standardize the number of years of school offered by each republic. Then, by introducing a new university entrance exam at all public universities, it can indirectly compel the republics to teach certain materials in order for their students to have access to university. Of course, expanding the school system in this way is not cheap, but the government is more than happy to provide the necessary funds to the republics in order to carry out this policy… provided that the curriculum is satisfactory, of course.

((Changing education law to mandatory secondary and free tertiary))