Economists agree that the progress of a country is dependent on education. According to the World Bank, earnings increase by 10% with each year of schooling received, a higher increase than any other individual action could provide, writes guest columnist Becca Renk. (Courtesy of Becca Renk)
I’m giving my new neighbor Wilmer a ride into town. He’s from the interior of Nicaragua, Siuna. To make conversation, I ask about horses. Wilmer explains to me the attributes of horses versus mules and donkeys, the relative cost of each animal and the cost of breeding a mare with a donkey.
The conversation moves on to food crops – Wilmer fills me in on the dates for bean, corn and rice harvests in different parts of the country and the price per pound for each crop on the farm versus the market. He tells me he’s headed up north at the end of the year to work the bean harvest.
Wilmer will take a bus all the way to the end of the line, then walk three hours and cross several rivers to get to his house. He is 18 years old, and he’s only spent three months in a schoolroom in his whole life.
“I can read,” he says, “but I can’t write.”
Wilmer hasn’t been able to register for school, social benefits, or work a formal job because he doesn’t have a birth certificate. He was born at the end of the neoliberal era when it was very common to not register babies’ births at all.
The right to have a name is one of the many rights that the current Nicaraguan government has been restoring to its people since returning to office in 2007. Today, registering a baby’s birth is a free process available at hospitals where 97% of births now take place. Municipal governments also have a program providing free legal services for citizens whose birth was never registered.
The right to education
To take advantage of this program, Wilmer has come to stay with his mother in our rural village near Managua. He hopes to have his birth certificate before the end of the year. Once he is in the system, the local principal has ensured him that he can enroll for the new school year in high school on Saturdays. He is excited about the possibilities this will provide him.
Between 1990 and 2006, the neoliberal educational model in Nicaragua considered the public school system as useful only in creating future clients, viewing the poor as a source of cheap labor and not worthy of investment in their education. Public school funding was slashed, including even the daily glass of milk given to children during the 1980s. In the 1990s, the wealthy sent their children to private schools while public classrooms deteriorated to the point of being useless, and children had to bring their own desks or sit on the floor to receive their lessons.
As a consequence of these policies, by 2006, nearly a quarter of the country was unable to read or write. This is a particularly shameful statistic following on the triumphant National Literacy Crusade in 1980 that had managed to lower the 50.3% illiteracy under the Somoza dictatorship to 12.9% in a matter of months.
Economists agree that the progress of a country is dependent on education. According to the World Bank, earnings increase by 10% with each year of schooling received, a higher increase than any other individual action could provide.
Idaho dead last in educational spending
In the United States, education spending falls short of benchmarks set by international organizations such as UNESCO, of which the U.S. is a member. The U.S. puts just 12.7% of public funding toward education, well below the international standard of 15%, while spending 43% of the annual federal budget on military spending.
When I graduated from public school in Idaho, the state spent less money per student on education than any other state in the nation. Thirty years later, that is still true. In the interim, things have actually gotten worse: the No Child Left Behind Act focused curriculum on teaching for standardized tests, and the charter school movement led to an exodus of creativity and public school funding to the private sector. As a result of these policies, today 27.6% of Idahoans have a high school diploma, but no college education; and in my rural hometown, 15% of the adult population didn’t graduate high school at all.
Nicaragua’s investment in education
Eighteen years ago, when the Sandinista government came back into office, more than half of Nicaragua’s population was under the age of 21. It was clear that without a significant investment in education, the economy and society were not going to advance.
Nicaragua opted to make educational investment as a pillar in its poverty reduction programs, and that investment has risen every year since. In 2024, 53 cents of every dollar Nicaragua spent was on social programs, with education representing 19.5% of the country’s overall budget, well above UNESCO’s international standard of 15%. Nicaragua’s total military spending is only 3% of the national budget.
In this small country of 7 million people, the educational investment has been huge: since 2007, all existing classrooms been remodeled, and 9,000 more have been built new; all teachers been trained and 10,000 new teachers have been added; 1.25 million school desks have been purchased and 1.2 million schoolchildren get a hot meal daily.
In addition to infrastructure investments, the Nicaraguan government has also invested in people: seniors graduating high school now receive a cash bonus from the government of $82. This year, the bonus was given to 63,717 students, adding up to a total investment of $5.24 million.
The results of these policies? Nicaragua has been declared free of illiteracy, the school retention rate is now over 92%, and Nicaragua is number one in the world for women and girl’s education.
“If you’re not studying, it’s because you don’t want to”
Wilmer’s option to attend Saturday school in rural areas is just one of a multitude of opportunities now available through the free education system in Nicaragua. There are accelerated classes on weekends to finish high school in two years, short courses available in each municipality, and free technical degrees available for those 14 years and older in everything from motorcycle mechanic to chef, veterinary technician to alternative energy tech. Additionally, there are more than 400 university degree courses available at free universities in around the country, with in-person, low residence and online options available in rural areas.
When talking to Nicaraguans about variety of educational options, the phrase I hear most is, “Nowadays, if you’re not studying, it’s because you don’t want to.” Thanks to free third-level education and improved opportunities, since 2006, the percentage of population with a university degree in Nicaragua has risen from 9% to 19%.
Spoiled for options in Nicaragua
Our daughters attended public school in Nicaragua from preschool right through high school. When they graduated, we considered sending them to live with their grandparents in Idaho to continue their education. But in rural north Idaho, in-person university classes are at least an hour’s drive, and the closest four-year degree available is at the University of Idaho three hours away in Moscow. Even with in-state tuition, the cost of U of I is estimated at over $25,000 per year.
Given the lack of options in north Idaho and the quality of choices available for free in Nicaragua, the decision is a no-brainer. After taking a gap year, our daughter Orla is one of nearly 62,000 applicants to public university this year. Just in the past few years, there has been a marked increase in the number of public universities and campuses around the country, so this year there is a single application for all the public universities.
In order to apply, a few weeks ago Orla went online and entered her student ID number into the online application. Her full name and grades from high school automatically popped up. She then entered her top three choices for majors, which she picked from a catalog of over 400 options, aided by an online quiz that matched her interests with available careers. Orla then entered her preferences for morning, afternoon, evening, Saturday and Sunday options and put in her contact information.
This week, the results will be available online: students are accepted to a program based on grades and are placed in the program at the university closest to them. If they aren’t accepted to their top three choices, they are given a list of degree courses that still have available places, and are given the option to enroll in one of those courses. The only cost ever for public university from application right through graduation, is a one-time fee to issue a diploma which is a maximum charge of $40.
As Wilmer makes the long trip home for the holidays, I know he will be fine. I’ve rarely met someone with such street smarts, despite coming from a place where there are no streets. But Wilmer has to work very hard just to survive. When he comes back from harvesting beans in January, birth certificate in hand, the new school year will be starting. I imagine him adding formal education to all his intelligence, and I know that nothing will be able to stop Wilmer.
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