Paraguay

Catholic University and National University enjoy equivalent federal recognition.

Catholic University, founded in 1960 by the Conferencia Episcopal del Paraguay, was later reorganized by the Sacred Congregation of Seminaries and University Studies. Heading Catholic University as its Grand Chancellor is the Archbishop of Asunción; the University's jointly governing bodies are the Consejo Universitario and the Consejo Administrativo. The National University, founded in 1890 and granted autonomous status in 1919, is financed by the State Governing Body and governed by the Consejo Superior Universitario—a group comprising the Rector, the dozen or so faculty deans, one alumnus, and one student.

The tradition of private economic support for mass education by means of personal or corporate endowment has never been generally established in Paraguay. Private schools, primarily Catholic, charge tuition. Government funds, supplemented by various user sources, have supported public education in the past, and still do. In the early 1980s, the budget of the Ministry of Education and Worship, which supervised elementary and high school education, was barely 15 percent of total government expenditures.

National Funding and national control of educa tion—not regional or local funding—is the norm in Paraguay. Heavy percentages of federal allocations have traditionally gone toward primary schooling. Urban schools in Paraguay typically get 90 percent of their support from government funds. Public secondary schools have received from half to three-quarters of their support from the national government, with the rest coming from various sources including users and locales.

Primary and secondary public schools have throughout the twentieth century remained under the supervision of the Ministry of Education and Worship, a central agency.

No indicators in 2001 suggest more than nominal developments in areas such as distance learning. Under funding and conservative patterns persist. Few substantive scientific activities exist except class instruction at the National University. The small size of the university libraries is telling, though the era of the Internet does now provide global access to resources in the more up-to-date schools.