Panama

Students can attend school after attaining the age of three. Parents can choose from either public or private kindergartens but must pay fees. Preprimary school is not obligatory; it includes, and besides kindergartens, daycare centers. Some of the most well known preprimary centers are run by the Methodist affiliated Instituto Panamericano and by the Roman Catholic La Salle and Javier schools. The most popular centers are the daycare centers (Centros de Orientación Infantil Familiar—COIF), which help students develop all areas of their personalities. An overwhelming percentage (over 80 percent) of the children who attend COIFs come from urban areas. The number of preprimary schools grew dramatically from 130 in 1970 to 1086 in 1996, while the number of students in preprimary education increased from 6,921 to 46,245 during the same time period.

Primary education lasts six years (ages 6 to 12). In the primary schools (2,900 of in 1999) students must learn natural sciences, social studies, Spanish, and English (compulsory). But the curriculum includes practical subjects as well, such as hygiene, agriculture, and artistic and manual studies. After successfully completing their studies they are awarded a certificate, which allows them to enter the first stage of secondary school or common cycle (ciclo común). At the beginning of the 1990s there were 351,000 students who attended primary school.