Public Education System in Puerto Rico

LANGUAGE

Are you willing to help support my future education???

The public education system in Puerto Rico is in need of some structure and guidance.

LITERACY RATE

Literacy rate is composed of individuals over the age of 15 that can read and write.

• The total literacy rate for the population in Puerto Rico is 90.3%

• The literacy rate for males is 89.7%

• For females, the literacy rate is 90.9 %

• Females tend to have a higher literacy because the likelihood of females remaining in school in significantly higher than males.

• Males tend not remain in school as long as females because they may have to drop out, in order to find work to support the family.

• The language taught in primary through secondary school is Spanish.
• At the university level, both Spanish and English are used.
• Textbooks in public schools are in Spanish, except for English class, in which the books are in English.
• In comparison to the U.S., English is taught as the primary language and offers Spanish as a second language to be learned, if desired.

THE END

PUERTO RICO UNITED STATES

vs

COLLEGE?

• Students in Puerto Rico must attend private school to be admitted into a college or university in Puerto Rico.
• Only 1% of students from public school are accepted into private school.
• 99% of students from public school are not accepted into a college or university because they could not afford to attend private schooling
• Therefore after completion of high school, the child's future education is completed unless they are able to come to the United States.

STUDENT POPULATION

• Puerto Rico's public schools have 612,725 students and only 30, 479 students complete high school.
• Only about 5% of students that began schooling at a specified date graduated on time because of the lack of organization within the education system.

Background Information

• There has been several attempts to organize the Puerto Rican education system since 1898.
• The education system is very poor compared to the United States.
• The Board of Education in Puerto Rico is not able to afford the necessary amount of supplies needed to successfully run a school.
• This causes the education received by the children to be less than children in other countries.

SCHOOL SEQUENCE

• The education system in Puerto Rico resembles the American system following the pre-k, primary, middle, and high school sequence.
• Higher education of associate and bachelor's degrees are an option after successful completion of private school.
• 100% of the students who attend private school are accepted into a college or university in Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico vs United States

TECHNOLOGY

• In Puerto Rico, access to information technology such as computer clusters, work stations, and web-access for students are insufficient because of the lack of resources.
• About half the population in Puerto Rico is poverty stricken and the school system suffers because of the lack of money to support the school.

• Any one can attend college

• Only can attend college in Puerto Rico if attended private school

SCHOOL LIFE EXPECTANCY

School life expectancy is the age limit that children remain in school from primary to tertiary education.

• For the total population in Puerto Rico, the school life expectancy is 16 years old.
• For males, 14 years old
• For females, 17 years old
• Females tend to go to school longer than males because the males may have to drop out in order to find work and support the family.

• Lower high school dropout rate

• Higher high school dropout rate

• Larger school population

• Smaller school population

• Lower graduation rate

• Higher graduation rate

PUBLIC EDUCATION

• In the United States, 76 % of students attend public school and 24% attend private school.
• 72% of the students graduate high school and 28% do not graduate
• The students in the U.S. are lucky because we are able to attend any college that we choose but students in Puerto Rico aren't as lucky.

• Lower standard of living

• Higher standard of living

• Poverty stricken, unorganized public education school system

• State run, organized public education school system

• Prevalent access to information technology, web-access, computer clusters, and workstations

• Little-to-no access to information technolgy, web-access, computer clusters, and workstations

PUBLIC EDUCATION

• 80% of students in Puerto Rico attend public school, while the other 20% attend private school
• Only 42% of the students in public school graduate from high school
• 58% of the students in public school don't graduate from high school
• The majority of children attend public school unless the family is part of the few wealthy class citizens that can afford to send their children to private school.

How does the Puerto Rican public edcucation system differ from the United States public education system?

Sistema de educación pública en Puerto Rico

By: Janell Jackson