If one had to make a brief description of the educational system in El Salvador, it could be done using the following three expressions: Copy, learn by heart, reproduce. Education in El Salvador usually has little to do with understanding, discovering, discussing, forming an opinion or developing one’s own ideas. At school, children rather learn to accept that they do not understand what it is all about. Consequently, little is remembered. After nine years of primary education, many youth neither have solid skills in writing and arithmetic, nor have they learned to think for themselves or to act creatively.
Not only the low quality of education is a major problem, but also the bad access thereto. For young people from poor backgrounds, their educational career usually comes to an end after primary school or high school. Academic and technical training is reserved for those whose families can afford it.