Peru

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Peru in a nutshell

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

Peru (Spanish: Perú, Quechua: Piruw, Aymara: Piruw), officially the Republic of Peru (Spanish: República del Perú) is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean.

Source : http://www.cia.gov

Peruvian territory was home to the Norte Chico civilization, one of the oldest in the world, and to the Inca Empire, the largest state in Pre-Columbian America. The Spanish Empire conquered the region in the 16th century and established a Viceroyalty, which included most of its South American colonies. After achieving independence in 1821, Peru has undergone periods of political unrest and fiscal crisis as well as periods of stability and economic upswing.

The population is just over 29 million.

The capital (and largest city) is Lima.

Peru is divided into 25 regions. Its geography varies from the arid plains of the Pacific coast to the peaks of the Andes mountains and the tropical forests of the Amazon Basin. It is a developing country with a medium Human Development Index score and a poverty level around 40%. Its main economic activities include agriculture, fishing, mining, and manufacturing of products such as textiles.

The Peruvian population is multiethnic, including Amerindians, Europeans, Africans and Asians. The main spoken language is Spanish (the only official language), although a significant number of Peruvians speak Quechua or other native languages. This mixture of cultural traditions has resulted in a wide diversity of expressions in fields such as art, cuisine, literature, and music.

Education in Peru

(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Peru [which is very brief and incomplete] and Peru Ministry of Education [which does not appear to be updated very regularly or recently])

Education in Peru is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, which is in charge of formulating, implementing and supervising the national educational policy. According to the Constitution, education is compulsory and free in public schools for the initial, primary and secondary levels.

Education is also free in public universities for students who are unable to pay tuition and have an adequate academic performance.

As of 2008, various institutions such as UNESCO, World Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank have stated that Peru has the best education system in Latin America and that primary, secondary, and superior education attendance rates were the highest in Latin America. The primary completion rate is 99% and secondary pareticipation is 61.5%.

The current UNESCO and World Bank statistics indicate that the duration of compulsory education is 11 yearsm with 6 years of primary education and 5 of secondary. 831,345 students are enrolled in tertiary education.

The Ministry of Education has a number of key departments including the[http://www.minedu.gob.pe/oinfe/ Office of Educational Infrastructure] (OINFE):

Main Functions

• Formulating the National Education Infrastructure Plan, in coordination with the Office of Strategic Planning and Measurement of Educational Quality of the Ministry of Education.
• Coordinating identification of needs and demands for the location, construction, equipping and maintenance of educational infrastructure with Decentralized Intermediate Bodies.
• Formulating the Architectural Design Standards for the construction, equipping and maintenance of educational infrastructure.
• Monitoring and evaluating the development, implementation and dissemination of appropriate architectural designs for the different realities of the country.
• Coordinating technical actions with individuals and entities who contribute, donate, transfer and assign land and buildings to the Education Sector.
• Keeping the Margesí real estate, performing registration in the Public Records of properties that apply to the Ministry of Education.
• Developing investment programmes for the short, medium and long term for the construction, equipping and maintenance of school premises according to the requirements and needs of educational services.

Programmes and projects include the Education Programme in Rural Areas 2004 -2005, whose aim is to raise the level of learning achievement of children and youth served by the education system, closing the inequality gap between urban and rural areas. To achieve this objective there are intervention strategies organized into three components - increasing access, improving quality and efficiency in education management - which aim to improve educational quality and efficiency of the system.

Further and Higher education in Peru

Universities in Peru

Peru has over 70 universities - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_Peru for a list. For a shorter list of around 20 with Wikipedia entries see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Universities_in_Peru

There are public universities and also private universities. One private university with an entry is:

Universidad del Pacífico (University of the Pacific)

Universidad del Pacífico (UP) is a private university established in 1962 by a group of Peruvian entrepreneurs supported by the Society of Jesus. Today is has become a university specialized in the areas of economics and business administration. In the past three decades, UP has been ranked as the most prestigious higher education institution in its fields of specialization in Peru, and among the leading institutions of its kind in the Latin American region. For details see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_the_Pacific_(Peru) and

Administration and finance

BODY OF INSTITUTIONAL CONTROL - OCI

The Institutional Control Authority, Ministry of Education is responsible for carrying out government financial oversight and control of education in Peru. It has functional and technical independence, subject to the principles and powers established in the Law of the National Control, therefore, does not participate in the processes of management or internal administration of individual establishments.

The Head of Institutional Control Authority is appointed by the Comptroller General of the Republic. The current Head of Institutional Control Authority, Ministry of Education is Mr. Jaime Rodriguez Anibal Rodriguez, appointed by Comptroller Resolution No. 139-2010-CG of May 25, 2010.

Mission

The basic mission of the Institutional Control Authority is to promote sound and transparent management of the resources and assets of the Ministry of Education and ensure that processes are both legal and efficient in supporting institutions to achieve their goals.

The main functions of the Institutional Control Authority are:

• Internal audit
• External audit
• Monitoring and improvement of financial procedures
• Controls to prevent fraud and misappropriation
• Receiving and addressing complaints

Organization

• Financial Control Unit
• Management Control Unit
• Complaints - processing and investigating complaints made by workers in the education sectors, institutions and the general public for alleged irregular acts committed by officials of the sector.

Quality assurance

The overall functions of QA are undertaken by the Office of Strategic Planning and Measurement of Educational Quality (Planman).

Its main functions involve formulating plans for educational development, design criteria for the development planning process in the other management bodies of educational administration, monitoring and evaluation of the policy sector, as well as measuring educational quality, the identification and design of research to support policy formulation and planning, production and dissemination of educational statistics.

Specific functions include:

• Organizing, managing, monitoring, supervising and evaluating activities for the Office.
• Proposing Senior Management sector policy, education development plans and criteria for development planning processes for educational administration.
• Regulating, advising and guiding the process of formulating the development plans of the education sector for the medium and long term.
• Advising senior management in matters related to the planning process, Statistics and Measurement of Educational Quality.
• Monitoring, supervising and evaluating indicators by sector policy.
• Coordinating with the National Offices and headquarters of the Ministry of Education actions aimed at implementing the Sector Education Policy.
• Coordinating with the Regional Offices of Education, Public Agencies and decentralized enforcement bodies, actions that tend to ensure proper implementation of the Sector Education Policy.
• Promoting prospective studies of education in the context of constantly changing social, scientific - technological occurs in Peru and worldwide.
• Coordinating and evaluating national projects of the Ministry of Education.

It also has a section for ICT: the Oficina de Informática which provides IT support for institutional management in Ministry Headquarters, Regional Offices, Educational Management Units and Schools. Its objectives include:

• Establishing policies, rules and standards for the use of computer resources (hardware and software) in the Education Sector;
• Evaluating, proposing and implementing new technologies as solutions to optimize administrative and institutional management;
• Developing information systems required for the management of the MED;
• Managing the corporate database using an integrated approach;
• Setting the required connectivity between Headquarters and decentralized management bodies of MED and providing technological support to ensure the continuous operation of computer equipment and communications *For both local area networks and the National Network (WAN), evaluating and proposing the renewal of computer equipment according to technological progress.

ICT in education initiatives

Institucion Educativa Virtual del Callao and its portal Virtual school of Callao portal appears to be a virtual school, but the two websites are currently (August 2011) unavailable. It appears to have enrolled its first 42 students in 2009, linked with the Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería (National University of Engineering), but more recent references are elusive.

Virtual initiatives in schools

[Sanquira Virtual]

Virtual initiatives in post-secondary education

There are two virtual campuses in the university sector:

• Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar - but note that Peru is a branch campus; the university is headquartered in Bolivia.
• Universidad Nacional Federico Villareal, based in Peru

References

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