Education in Iberoamerican Constitutions
The existence of educational themes in the constitutional provisions of the different
Iberoamerican Constitutions has been analysed in its legal foundations, its legal framework
and its basic principles.
1. Education foundations and legal framework
a) All the texts (100 %) include education organisation as being one of the State function
and responsibility.
b) 17 Constitutions (80,95 %) provide for the adoption of a specific legislation as a medium
or instrument for education organisation. 19,05 %, represented by Costa Rica, Cuba,
Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic do not refer expressly to the use of education law to
materialise its organisation. However, they do insist on education organisation under State
control.
c) The theme of the decentralisation of education, perceived as one of the possible means to
organise education, appears in 15 Constitutions (71,43 %) whereas it is not mentioned in 6
of them (28,57 %), corresponding to the Constitutions of Costa Rica, El Salvador,
Nicaragua, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
The subject of decentralisation of education is developed in various ways in the texts.
On the one hand, we find constitutional texts which perceive the decentralisation of
education as a competence depending on the federal states, on the provinces, the
countries, the regions... and expect from these communities to organise their own
educational system. It is the case of Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Guatemala, Mexico,
Uruguay and Venezuela. On the other hand, some constitutional texts consider it is up to
the central government to deal with educational related decisions. It is also possible to
delegate the organisational questions to provinces or cities organisms in order to relate the
socio-educational environment to the local context. This is the case of countries such as
Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Chile, Ecuador, Panama, Paraguay and Peru.
d) 13 Constitutions (61,90 %) include in their drafting the existence of general learning
plans which guide and orientate education on the national territory. 8 countries (38,10 %)
do not mention any learning plans in their constitutions: Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile,
Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela.
2. Basic principles for education
a) The right to education is stated in two different ways: first as a right to education as such
and second as a right to free/integral development of the personality, which we will
consider next. Both are complementary. 17 countries expressly state in the writing of their
Constitutions the right to education (80,95 %). Only 4 do not: Costa Rica, Dominican
Republic, Peru and Uruguay.
b) There are constitutional texts mentioning the right to free/integral development of the
personality (80,95 %) whereas 4 (19,05 %) do not mention it: Bolivia, Costa Rica,
Dominican Republic and Honduras.
1
c) 12 constitutional texts (57,14 %) affirm the right of parents to choose the education of
their children and 9 (42,86 %) do not mention it: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica,
Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Nicaragua and Puerto Rico.
Concerning this topic, we can also distinguish the countries who understand this right as
the right of parents to choose the confession of teaching for their children (Ecuador,
Spain, Panama and Venezuela) and those who understand it as the right of parents to
effectively choose the type of education for their children: Colombia, Chile, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Honduras, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay. Peru and Uruguay also grant the right of
parents to choose education centres.
d) 4 countries expressly recognise non-religious/secular education in their Constitution:
Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico and Nicaragua whereas 17 countries (80,95 %) do not
recognise this characteristic. Cuba and Nicaragua expressly affirm their non-religious
character despite the fact that it neither appears in the statistics nor is expressly inscribed
in their Constitution. This statement underlies the laicism of their educational system.
Laicism is stated in various ways, either as the expression of a non-religious characteristic
for all levels of public education (Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua), or including a provision
preventing public education from adopting any religious doctrine (Mexico).
e) The principle of academic freedom appears in 12 constitutional texts (57,14 %) and is not
inscribed in the 9 remaining texts (42,86 %) which corresponds to Argentina, Cuba, El
Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico and Venezuela.
f) 4 constitutional texts (19,05 %) recognise freedom of learning: Brazil, Colombia,
Guatemala and Honduras. 17 others (80,95 %) do not recognise this right.
g) 11 texts recognise the freedom of religion (52,38 %): Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica,
Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and Peru. The 10
remaining countries (47,62 %) do not recognise it.
Freedom of religion is expressed either in the frame of the general organisation of the
educational system (Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain and Honduras), or in
the frame of tertiary teaching organisation (Costa Rica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and
Peru).
h) 20 texts (65,24 %) recognise the principle of the obligation to provide basic education
and one country (4,76 %), Argentina, does not.
This obligation to provide basic education is worded differently according to the
Constitution and details the scope/reach of this compulsory characteristic. We can thus
distinguish between the texts which phrase this obligation as such (Brazil, Bolivia, Chile,
Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain,
Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico and
Venezuela) and those, which extend this obligation up to secondary education (Peru and
Uruguay).
i) 13 constitutional texts (61,90 %) recognise, in their formulation, the theme of equal
opportunities in the access to education and 8 (38,10 %) do not: Colombia, Costa Rica,
Chile, Dominican Republic, Spain, Honduras, Mexico and Uruguay.
2
Concerning this topic, we can distinguish between the countries for whom the principle of
equal opportunities in the access to education is stated under a generic form (Argentina,
Brazil, Cuba, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Venezuela), and the countries who list different
reasons which can motivate discrepancies in the access to education (Bolivia, Ecuador, El
Salvador, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Puerto Rico).
j) 20 texts (95,24 %) recognise free education and only one country does not (4,76 %),
Bolivia.
Some countries, in their texts, commit themselves to grant free state education (Argentina,
Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain,
Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico,
Uruguay and Venezuela), whereas others introduce the possibility of recollection from
those who own the means to pay (Colombia).
k) 10 constitutional texts (47,62 %) signal the existence of a grant system to facilitate the
access to education. The 11 remaining countries (52,38 %) do not provide for such a
system: Argentina, Chile, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Spain, Honduras, Mexico,
Nicaragua, Peru, Puerto Rico and Venezuela.
Concerning that matter, constitutional texts vary between those which indicate superior
education as the level to which this grant system refers: Bolivia, Colombia and Costa and
those which simply state its existence under a generic form, in the frame of the
organisation of education: Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama and Uruguay.
l) family financial participation to education is a theme present in 18 texts (85,71 %) and
is absent from 3 of them (14,29 %): Costa Rica, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.
m) 16 countries (76,19 %) evoke, in their constitutional texts, participation of the
community to education against 5 countries (23,81 %) who do not (23,81 %): Costa
Rica, Dominican Republic, Peru, Puerto Rico and Uruguay.
n) 7 countries (33,33 %) evoke the students’ financial participation to education:
Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Spain, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela. The 14 remaining
countries (66,67 %) do not refer to it.
o) 10 countries (47,62 %) refer to quality teaching promotion as one of the objectives to
pursue: Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Spain, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Peru and
Venezuela. The 11 remaining countries (52,38 %) do not refer to it in the phrasing of their
Constitution.
p) The link between education and socio-economic development is present in 15
constitutional texts (71,43 %) and absent from 6 of them (28,57 %): Chile, Dominican
Republic, El Salvador, Spain, Puerto Rico and Uruguay.
Reference: Document written by the Organisation of Iberoamerican States for Education,
Science and Culture (OIS) for the "Discussion Day on the Dakar Framework for Action", with
the CESCR and UNESCO, 9 may 2002, Palais Wilson, Geneva.
3