Paraguay

After independence in 1811, a secondary school was established but closed in 1822. Modest efforts in the mid-nineteenth century toward public education amounted to little. After 1877, when the first secondary school system was inaugurated, public education grew, producing a supply of graduates that justified the founding of the National University in 1889 and the first teacher-training school in 1896.

By 1909, five national "colleges" providing secondary instruction were located in Asunción, Villa Concepción, Villa Rica, Villa Encarnación, and Villa del Pilar. Additionally, two normal schools offered teacher training.

At the time of the Chaco War against Bolivia in the 1930s and 1940s, Paraguay had several teachers' colleges, a number of high schools, and a few technical schools. Before World War II, the educational system expanded, with enrollments nearly doubling. Expansion continued at the secondary level faster than at the primary level.

Secondary education was organized as two three-year programs, each leading to a baccalaureate degree. Students anticipating university admission or teacher training pursued the diversified program, with a focus in the humanities. Those with more limited academic abilities or more practical interests—including the pursuit of advanced training at one of a number of postsecondary schools offering programs in agriculture, commerce, or industry—took a three-year technical program in high school.

In the 1970s fewer than 1 percent of rural children finished secondary school programs, compared to 10 percent of urban students. From 1975 to 1980, the number of students in the basic secondary cycle grew from about 49,000 to about 76,000. By 1988, about one out of four children in Paraguay went on to secondary school: in that year, 165,373 students ages 13-18 enrolled in 812 schools. (Included in these figures are vocational students and those in teacher training.) These students were taught by 9,444 teachers, so that the student/teacher ratio was a bit better than that at the lower levels. Twenty-eight percent of students went to high school in 1992.

By the late 1980s, women made up fully half of all high school graduates. Paraguay has three Jesuit high schools, two in Asunción and one in Santa Rosa.