Uruguay

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Uruguay in a nutshell

(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguay)

Source : http://www.cia.gov

Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay (Spanish: República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country located in the southeastern part of South America.

It is home to 3.46 million people, of whom 1.7 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area.

An estimated 80-88% of the population are of mostly European and/or mixed descent.

Uruguay's only land border is with Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, to the north. To the west lies the Uruguay River, to the southwest lies the estuary of Río de la Plata, with Argentina only a short commute across the banks of either of these bodies of water, while to the southeast lies the South Atlantic Ocean.

Uruguay is the second smallest country in South America, larger only than Suriname.

The economy is largely based on agriculture (making up 10% of GDP and the most substantial export) and the state sector. According to Transparency International, Uruguay is the least corrupt country in Latin America (along with Chile), with its political and labour conditions being among the freest on the continent.

Uruguay is one of the most economically developed countries in Latin America, with a high GDP per capita and the 47th highest quality of life in the world.

Uruguay consists of nineteen departments (departamentos, singular "departamento"). The first departments were formed in 1816 and the newest, Flores, dates from 1885. The departments are governed by an intendente municipal who is elected for five years. The members of the Departmental Assembly (Junta Departamental) form the legislative level of the department.

Uruguay is South America's most secular country. It has no official religion and church and state are separate.

Education in Uruguay

Compulsory education lasts for 10 years in Uruguay: one year of pre-primary [Inicial]; six years of primary school [Primaria] and three years of secondary [Medio]. The three compulsory years of secondary consist either of the Ciclo Básico [general education] or Formación Profesional Básica [basic vocational training].

Non-compulsory secondary and technical education may last a further two, three or five years: two years for the Formación Profesional Superior [higher level vocational training]; three years for the Bachillerato, which can be either a general or humanities-based programme [Diversificado] or specializing in STEM subjects [Tecnológico] and which forms the matriculation requirement for entrance to higher education [Terciario]; or five years for Técnico en Nivel Medio [intermediate level vocational training].

Tertiary education and training [Terciario] may involve four years of vocational or professional training [including teacher training, outside university [Técnico Nivel Medio y Superior or Formación de Maestros y Profesores]. University degree courses last from 3 to 6 years.

There are both public and private schools, technical institutes and universities – in public institutions education and training are free.

Each of the stages and pathways are administered by different departments of the National Public Education Administration.

Literacy rates are high and Uruguay has one of the most developed and sophisticated education systems of Hispanic American countries. Education spending is 2.6% of GDP (9.6% of total government expenditure). The primary completion rate is 91% and the secondary level enrolment rate is just under 70%.

Sourced largely from the National Public Education Administration, Uruguay.

Schools in Uruguay

Schools in Uruguay cover all levels of general education up to the Bachillerato and non-university vocational education and training.

• Primary schools: there is a total of 2556 primary schools (Establecimientos de Educación Primaria), of which 494 (19.3%) are in the capital, Montevideo. 84% are public (i.e. state) schools, whilst 16% are private establishments recognised by the Ministry. 150 are special schools (6%), and a relatively high percentage of these (45%) are private schools. In the Montevideo area a much higher proportion of schools are private than in the rest of the country - this applies to both general and special primary schools.
• Lower secondary schools: at this level, the different tracks between general and vocational education emerge. There is a total of 682 lower secondary schools (Establecimientos de Educación Media Básica), with 237 (almost 35%) in Montevideo. The main track of general education is administered by the CES department and is represented by 548 schools: 366 are general state schools; 182 (27%) are private schools and 61 Escuelas con Ciclo Básico Rural offer a basic general education in rural areas - all except one of these are outside Montevideo. The CETP department administers a further 134 vocational establishments (25% in Montevideo) of three types: 21 Centros de Ciclo Básico Tecnológico; 90 Escuelas de C.B.T. y Técnicas and 23 Escuelas Agrarias. None of these are recorded as private schools.
• Upper secondary schools: there is a total of 663 establishments (Establecimientos de Educación Media Superior) offering programmes, including 182 private schools (27.5%). 107 of the private schools are in Montevideo. 550 (83%) offer the Bachillerato, administered by the CES, and the remaining 113 are administered by the CETP and offer vocational programmes - 90 are Escuelas de C.B.T. y Técnica and the 23 Escuelas Agrarias offer higher courses, following on from the lower secondary programme.

Sourced from Ministry of Education & Culture - 2009 Statistical data

Further and Higher education

Tertiary education is provided in a range of universities, polytechnics and institutes - the latter are roughly equivalent to specialist colleges in western Europe.

Universities in Uruguay

Wikipedia lists just five universities (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_Uruguay):

• Universidad Católica del Uruguay Dámaso Antonio Larrañaga - the only private university of the country for 11 years until 1996
• Universidad de Montevideo - a private university
• ORT Uruguay - said to be Uruguay's largest private university
• University of the Republic - Uruguay's public university, and the country's largest, with a student body of more than 70,000 students; founded in 1849 in Montevideo, where most of its buildings and facilities are still located - several of the faculties have their own web portals which may appear to be separate universities [e.g. the School of Music
• Instituto Universitario Autónomo del Sur - founded in 1985

In addition to these main five, there now appear to be several others:

• Universidad de la Empresa (UDE - a private business university)
• Francisco de Asis University (UNIFA)
• CLAEH - a small organisation dealing with arts and social sciences
• Labour University of Uruguay

At least one of the newer 'universities' has had its status revoked by the Ministry - Universitario de Punta del Este

The Association of Universities of the Montevideo Group - La Asociación de Universidades Grupo Montevideo (AUGM) - is headquartered in Uruguay.

Information society

Broadband (sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_in_Uruguay)

Statistics of Internet:

• Internet users: 968,000 (2007)
• Internet Hosts: 480,593 (2007)
• Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 5 (1999)

In Uruguay, you can access the Internet mainly by using:

• DSL services, provided by the state owned telco company (ANTEL).
• One of the different Wireless ISP (which have a tendency to be more expensive because of high taxation and radio spectrum licenses costs).
• As an option, some shopping malls and other commercial business offer WiFi access at their location.
• Cyber cafes are very common throughout the whole country, and very inexpensive (from about U$S 0.4 an hour).
• 3G mobile internetm which is offered by all the mobile phone companies with rates of up to 3 Mbit/s - the 3G charges are similar to ADSL rates.
• Slower mobile internet service (EDGE and GPRS) is also offered by all mobile phone companies at very low flat rates.

ANTEL, a telco company owned by the government, charges U$S 50 a month (about U$S 600 a year) for a 1536 kbit/s/128 kbit/s ADSL service. That is one of the most expensive DSL services in the region (which includes Argentina, Brazil and Chile), while wages in Uruguay might be lower than in said countries. Also, the services dynamically changes the IP address of the customer every 12 hours, making it difficult to use for tele-working. Antel enjoys a monopoly in the basic telephony area, and has successfully prevented other competitors (such as Cable companies) from entering the Internet service provider business. ISP are then forced to use other technologies, such as radio, to get to customers. Usually, the taxation and licensees for radio spectrum are also very expensive, in a way to artificially not allow these ISP to be cost competitive with Antel DSL service.

References

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