This chapter summarises the report’s key findings and recommendations, focusing on where Peru’s education and skills system stands in relation to OECD Members and peers in Latin America, and where OECD evidence and policy examples can help Peru move closer to OECD benchmarks for quality, equity and good governance.
Education and Skills in Peru
Abstract
Over the past two decades, Peru has embarked on one of the most sustained periods of education reform in its recent history. Backed by a clear national vision and strong technical leadership, the country has pursued wide-reaching efforts to expand access and raise quality across the education and training system. Public investment has risen steadily, and a series of institutional and policy innovations have reshaped the sector – modernising the curriculum, making teaching a merit-based career, and establishing quality assurance processes to uphold minimum standards of provision. These reforms have contributed to tangible progress. Pre-primary enrolment has reached near-universal levels, student learning outcomes in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) have improved, converging towards the average of OECD countries in Latin America, and tertiary education attainment is now the highest in the region.
Despite these gains, momentum for change has slowed in recent years. Political instability has disrupted leadership and stalled the implementation of reforms. This has implications both for children today and for the country’s future development. Geography and family background continue to strongly shape individual opportunities in Peru. Poorer households and those outside the more prosperous Costa region face the greatest barriers to quality learning, holding back efforts to improve equality and reduce poverty. At the same time, seven in ten workers are employed informally, one of the highest rates in Latin America – a situation that will be hard to redress without stronger vocational pathways and closer partnerships between education, employers and local government. This report explores how Peru can draw on OECD evidence and international experience to revitalise its education reform efforts. It examines the extent to which Peru’s policies align with OECD best practice and how they might be further improved in order to better promote quality, equity and good governance in the education and training system (see Box 1.1). The present chapter summarises the key findings and recommendations from this review.
On 25 January 2022, the OECD Council decided to open accession discussions with Peru. On 10 June 2022, the OECD Council adopted the Roadmap for the accession of Peru to the OECD Convention [C/MIN(2022)24/FINAL], setting out the terms, conditions and process for accession to the OECD. Under this Roadmap, the EDPC has been requested to conduct an in-depth technical review of Peru in the area of education and skills. This report provides input to this process by evaluating Peru’s willingness and ability to implement the substantive OECD legal instruments within the EDPC’s competence, and Peru’s policies and practices as compared to OECD policies and practices in the area of education and skills. It does so with reference to five Accession Core Principles that are essential to effective education systems: a strong focus on improving learning outcomes; equity in educational opportunity; and good governance, in particular collecting and using data to inform policy; leveraging funding to steer reform; and engaging stakeholders in policy design and implementation. Drawing on OECD research and experience in the area of education and skills, the review examines the extent to which Peru’s policies and practices align with these core policy principles. It also provides recommendations on how Peru can improve policies in practices to advance the country towards OECD standards of education attainment and outcomes.
Peru has introduced a series of ambitious reforms to improve education quality. Notable among these are the introduction of a structured, merit-based public teaching career path in 2012 and a new integrated curriculum in 2016 designed to promote more effective student-centred, competence-based approaches to teaching and learning. Peru has also sought to enhance the quality and labour market relevance of tertiary education and adult learning. Legislation adopted in 2014 and 2016 laid the foundations for a more transparent and rigorous quality assurance system for tertiary education institutions (TEIs), establishing dedicated bodies to oversee licensing and accreditation. A major milestone was the creation of the National Superintendence of Higher University Education (SUNEDU) in 2014, initially set up as an autonomous regulator. This was crucial in strengthening the oversight of a rapidly expanding tertiary sector made up of a wide range of providers of varying type and quality. More recently, in 2021, the Ministry of Education (MINEDU) and the Ministry of Labour and Employment Promotion (MTPE) started developing the National Qualifications Framework (NQF), which seeks to better align education and training programmes with labour market needs.
This report explores how Peru can build on earlier reforms to drive a new phase of improvement in the quality and relevance of its education and training system. It highlights three areas where comparable international data suggests greater focus is needed. These are: quality assurance, where the vision of earlier reforms needs to be embodied in strong, independent institutions; teacher education and development, especially the weak links of initial teacher preparation and licensing; and vocational education, the relevance and attractiveness of which will be so important to Peru’s wider growth agenda.
How does education quality in Peru compare to OECD benchmarks?
International assessments show that Peru has made sustained progress in improving student outcomes. Between 2009 and 2022, Peru recorded significant gains in PISA, with average outcomes for fifteen-year-old students moving closer to the OECD-LAC average1 (see Figure 1.1). These gains were largely driven by an increase in the proportion of students reaching a baseline level of proficiency (Level 2) in reading, science and mathematics. However, a sizeable share of students still do not master the basic competencies needed to participate fully in society. More than six in ten students performed below Level 2 in mathematics, and five in ten in reading and science (see Figure 1.1). With weak foundations, some students fail to enrol or progress through higher levels of education, despite 91% of 15-year-olds aspiring to complete a tertiary degree and the significant earnings premium it offers (OECD, 2024[1]). This means that a large share of youth remain disengaged, with close to 22% of youth not in education, employment or training (NEET) – lower than in some OECD countries in the region, but still weakening the skills base to sustain economic growth (see Figure 1.1).
Several factors help explain these outcomes. One is the government’s limited capacity to oversee quality and support improvement across a diverse landscape of education and training providers. While Peru stands out internationally for its robust education data systems and its efforts to monitor performance – particularly in early childhood education and care (ECEC) and schooling – its quality assurance system remains relatively weak and fragmented. There is no single independent national body responsible for assuring quality and relevance in either basic education (ECEC, primary and secondary education) or tertiary education, making it difficult to consolidate professional expertise, develop good quality assurance frameworks and tools, and go beyond compliance to promote a culture of continuous improvement within educational institutions. This has contributed to uneven quality across providers, particularly in non-formal ECEC settings, low-cost private schools, and unlicensed TEIs where students tend to record lower educational outcomes and labour market benefits (Thapa et al., 2022[2]; OECD, 2019[3]; Ministry of Education, 2018[4]; Majerowicz Nieto, 2016[5]).
Another factor is the preparedness of teachers to employ effective pedagogies. Peru has taken an important step towards improving quality by establishing a national licensing process for initial teacher education (ITE) providers. However, in practice, TEIs offering ITE in Peru operate with limited oversight, and their programmes are often not well aligned with new expectations for what teachers should be able to do in the classroom. By 2024, less than one in four ITE providers had obtained a licence, and even fewer had completed institutional or programme-level accreditation (SINEACE, MINEDU, 2023[6]). Although a new ITE curriculum promotes applied, learner-centred approaches, many programmes continue to rely on traditional, lecture-based instruction (MINEDU, 2018[7]). Meanwhile, national initiatives to support practicing teachers and school leaders – like professional learning communities, in-person coaching, and more recent innovations to expand virtual mentoring and support – have demonstrated positive potential but have not been sustained over time or implemented at scale (Chinen and Bonilla, 2017[8]).
Peru could also do more to expand opportunities for students to pursue quality vocational pathways. At the secondary level, only 6,9% of students were enrolled in applied tracks in 2023, where increasingly OECD countries are seeking to diversity pathways at this level and create more opportunities for more work-related learning (see Figure 1.1). In tertiary education, only around 15% of students in professionally-oriented programmes are enrolled in strong sectoral schools that offer updated curricula and quality work-based placements. The majority attend institutions with limited links to employers and few opportunities for practical learning (OECD, 2023[9]).
Note: Panels A and B show the OECD-LAC average, which includes Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Mexico. In Panel C, NEET are defined as the share of 18-24 year-olds who are neither employed nor in formal education or training. Values are ranked in ascending order based on 2024 values. In Panel D, OECD average includes information from all 38 member states in 2022, except the United States (no data available).
Source: OECD (2023[10]), PISA database 2022, https://www.oecd.org/pisa/data/ (accessed on 23 September 2025); OECD (2025[11]), Education at a Glance 2025: OECD Indicators, Table A2.2, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/1c0d9c79-en; UIS (2024[12]), Share of all students in secondary education enrolled in vocational programmes, both sexes (%), https://databrowser.uis.unesco.org/, (accessed on 9 October 2025).
What can Peru learn from OECD policy and practice to improve education quality?
Policy message 1: Develop the quality assurance system to ensure basic standards are met and support improvements across both public and private education providers
Peru’s education and training system has expanded rapidly in recent decades, driven in large part by a surge in private provision in schooling and tertiary education. While this growth has helped increase enrolment, in the absence of a robust quality assurance system, it has also resulted in highly uneven standards of quality. Many providers operate without a license, in particular in the low-cost private sector, which tends to serve vulnerable learners. Strengthening oversight and continuous quality improvement in both the public and private education and training sector is therefore an urgent priority for Peru.
For this to happen, this report argues the importance of stronger national leadership to provide consistent direction and oversee the various dimensions of quality assurance, including licensing, accreditation, institutional self-evaluation, ongoing monitoring, and follow-up support. The current institutional set-up is not well designed to fulfil this role, as responsibilities are fragmented across various actors that operate with little professional autonomy, and overall capacity remains limited in terms of professional expertise and resources. Establishing stronger national leadership could help ensure that quality assurance processes are applied consistently across the country, while also promoting the development of tools and resources to move the quality assurance system beyond compliance towards improvement. In the Peruvian context, one possibility would be the creation of two dedicated quality assurance bodies: one for basic and one for tertiary education. To be trusted and effective, the new bodies should operate independently of both educational institutions and central government. International experience offers valuable models, such as Portugal’s Agency for Evaluation and Accreditation of Higher Education (Agência de Avaliação e Acreditação do Ensino Superior, A3ES), which operates with a high degree of independence, with its leadership appointed by a board of trustees based on recognised scientific and professional merit.
This report also highlights how establishing independent national quality assurance bodies could help strengthen core quality assurance tools and processes. One such element are the quality standards themselves. In basic education, setting more differentiated authorisation standards by education level – especially for services likely to expand, such as those for children under age 3 – would help clarify expectations for quality. Clearer definitions of good teaching would also provide a stronger basis for ongoing improvement. A second area where processes could be improved is in licensing and accreditation. For instance, transforming the institutional licensing of TEIs from a one-off process into a periodic requirement (e.g. every 6 years) for all providers could help ensure that recommendations from initial licensing are addressed and quality standards maintained. As the system gains capacity, replacing recurrent licensing with mandatory institutional accreditation and introducing mandatory programme-level accreditation could help shift quality assurance processes beyond verifying basic structural conditions, towards assessing the actual quality and relevance of programmes and instruction, evaluating areas like curricula, faculty, student support, and learning outcomes.
In basic education, a strong, independent central quality assurance body could help strengthen both oversight and support for school improvement by ensuring that national standards are applied consistently and by reinforcing local capacity. In Peru’s decentralised education system and vast territory, local education authorities (Unidades de Gestión Educativa Local, UGELs) act as the main interface with ECEC settings and schools. They authorise new providers, monitor performance and provide support for continuous improvement. However, OECD analysis suggests that many have limited staffing, capacity, and in some cases, professional independence to fulfil these roles. A central quality assurance body could enhance accountability by tracking whether UGELs are applying national standards consistently, for instance, by monitoring authorisation decisions and participating selectively in initial provider evaluations to ensure coherence across the country. It could also proactively connect UGELs with local actors who have strong technical expertise and independence – such as universities and qualified civil society organisations – to provide targeted support for school improvement.
Policy message 2: Revitalise efforts to strengthen initial teacher education, professional licensing and on-site support
The importance of strengthening teachers’ professional capabilities cannot be overstated. As the professionals who shape students’ daily learning experiences, teachers are central to improving learning outcomes. This report shows how Peru can draw on international evidence and experience to make progress on two fronts: how teachers are prepared and selected into the profession, and how they are supported to develop throughout their careers. Given the large number of new teachers entering ECEC settings and schools each year, this review places special emphasis on the need to raise the standards of teachers’ initial education and entry into the profession. The introduction in 2012 of measures to make teaching a merit-based career, including a requirement that teachers should pass a national professional licensing exam (Prueba Única Nacional, PUN) to secure a permanent position in public schools, marked a major step forward in raising standards in the profession. However, these reforms remain incomplete, as they have not been matched by adequate oversight and support to improve initial teacher education, nor by the systematic enforcement of professional licensing requirements. This review highlights the need to intensify efforts to enforce the licensing and accreditation of ITE providers, not only to address persistently low-quality provision, but also to recognise strong performers. It also highlights the importance of applying the national professional licensing requirement for public school teachers, not only to ensure that new teachers possess the basic knowledge and competencies to teach, but also to strengthen the accountability of ITE providers responsible for preparing candidates for the exam. Suggested measures to progress this include targeted training for unlicensed teachers, a clear timeframe for passing the exam, and limits on the number of permitted attempts.
Strengthening the professional development of teachers already in the classroom is equally critical to achieving better education outcomes in Peru. With a large workforce of practising teachers, sustained investments in continuous professional learning and leadership development can offer a powerful lever for system-wide improvement. A model based on peer (school-to-school) networking may offer a promising strategy for Peru to explore, both because it has proven effective in similar contexts and because most UGELs currently have limited capacity to deliver more direct forms of support themselves (OECD, 2025[13]). Here, this review examines how Peru could build on existing initiatives, such as the rural school networks (Redes Educativas Rurales), to connect schools and ECEC settings and enable them to learn from one another. However, school networking may have more limited potential in the most disadvantaged parts of the country, where there are fewer high-performing institutions. In these contexts, targeted leadership development and coaching are likely to be needed.
Policy message 3: Raise the quality and attractiveness of vocational tracks and deepen employer engagement in programme delivery
Strengthening vocational education will be essential to expand the supply of in-demand skills in the economy and create clearer pathways for individuals to transition into formal, higher-quality employment. One key avenue suggested in this review is to expand the availability of vocational options, starting with school education. Today in Peru, most secondary students follow a common academic track, with limited access to more applied courses such as those offered in Secundaria con formación técnica or Mi oportunidad técnica, which remain small in scale. Expanding the availability of vocational options for secondary students would allow more students to engage in applied learning and develop job-relevant skills earlier. This is especially important given that employers report high demand for secondary graduates and technical skills (Ministry of Labour and Employment Promotion of Peru, 2024[14]). It could also help increase engagement and improve upper-secondary completion rates, as nationally representative household data shows that one key factor associated with school dropout in Peru is students’ perception that education does not align with their personal interests in the short and medium term (Ministry of Education, 2022[15]). OECD countries offer valuable insights in this area, as many have diversified upper-secondary pathways to give students more opportunities to choose programmes that reflect both their interests and labour market needs (Stronati, 2023[16]).
A second avenue is to improve the permeability of programmes. International experience shows that the attractiveness of more applied pathways depends in part on offering clear opportunities for progression to higher levels of education and across different types of institutions (OECD, 2022[17]). Currently, credit transfer in Peru relies largely on local, voluntary agreements between institutions, which means transitions between vocational and academic post-secondary tracks remain difficult. Many OECD countries have adopted credit accumulation and transfer systems to support mobility and integration across institutions and levels. Developing a comprehensive system to recognise and certify skills, aligned with the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) and designed in collaboration with employers could further support student mobility. Such a system would not only allow learners to have their skills recognised to advance or re-enter education and training, but also help those who gained skills in non-formal settings access formal employment.
Beyond this, strengthening ties between education providers and employers will be critical to keep programmes aligned with evolving skills needs. One promising area for action is involving employers more systematically in the governance of professionally-oriented TEIs, for example, through participation in institutional curriculum councils or advisory committees. Stronger ties to employers will also be important to connect learners in real work environments, allowing them to acquire practical skills and competencies directly relevant to their chosen occupations. While strong sectoral schools like SENATI have established close ties with industry partners and offer high-quality work-based placements, most vocational education and training institutions lack the scale, networks, and capacity to develop such relationships on their own. Some OECD countries have created dedicated public funds or incentive schemes to support institutions in developing curricula and expanding work-based learning opportunities. Others have established regional and sectoral cooperative platforms to connect employers with the full spectrum of vocational education and training providers. By offering a centralised point of contact for institutions delivering training across ISCED levels 3 to 6, these sectoral councils can facilitate employer engagement in both the development and delivery of programmes. Such initiatives are particularly important in a context, like Peru’s, where most micro, small and mediums sized enterprises (MSMEs) operate informally and need support and incentives to offer training and internships.
Peru has implemented measures to promote more equitable access to education and training. Investments in pre-primary education (Ciclo II, ISCED 02) have made enrolment close to universal, while alternative school models, such as the Jornada Escolar Completa (Whole School Day programme), flexible schooling in rural areas, and expanded intercultural and bilingual provision, have helped reach disadvantaged, rural, and indigenous students. More recently, digital platforms like Aprendo en Casa, have begun to open up first and second-chance learning opportunities for students in underserved areas. On the demand side, measures range from the national conditional cash transfer programme Juntos, which supports families’ engagement in early education and schooling, to scholarships and student loans that have opened pathways into tertiary education for disadvantaged, high-achieving students.
While this marks a positive direction of reform, the scale of inequalities in Peru, especially the obstacles faced by the poorest Peruvians, calls for a stronger policy response. Young children from low-income backgrounds are far less likely to access early educational development (Ciclo I) or complete secondary education. Disadvantaged youth are also significantly underrepresented in tertiary education and are more likely to work in informal jobs. While most poor Peruvians now live in urban areas, rurality and ethnolinguistic background remain associated with the highest levels of both socio-economic and educational disadvantage. Rural students often face limited infrastructure, long travel distances, and fewer qualified teachers, while only two out of ten indigenous student has access to schools in which their language and culture are meaningfully reflected in classroom practice (Hidalgo Collazos and Ordoñez Hidalgo, 2025[18]).
School choice presents another challenge for equity. Peru’s education system features a high degree of choice between public and private providers and across a diverse and large government-independent private sector. However, policies to regulate fees and admissions, and make options transparent to parents and students, remain relatively limited, meaning that it is largely more affluent families, with access to information, and the means to pay tuition, transport, or relocate, who can fully take advantage of the choices available. This report focuses on three areas central to ensuring more equal opportunities to education in Peru: expanding alternative models of provision, notably in the early years and for adult learners; improving socio-economic inclusion in schools and universities through reforms to admissions and tuition fees; and a more proactive approach to tackling the demand-side barriers to education outside compulsory schooling.
How do access and equity in Peru’s education system compare to OECD benchmarks?
Figure 1.2 summarises indicators of participation in education and training in Peru, compared to the OECD and peers in Latin America. The country has made impressive strides in expanding access: enrolment in pre-primary, primary and secondary education is now nearing universality. At tertiary level, Peru stands out with 31% of individuals aged 20 to 24 enrolled in 2023 – similar to the OECD average (34%) and one of the highest shares among OECD countries in Latin America (OECD, 2023[19]). The gains extend to disadvantaged students, who are now more likely to finish school and achieve better learning outcomes. According to PISA, the share of low performers in mathematics among disadvantaged students declined, from 95% in 2012 to 87% in 2022 (OECD, 2023[20]).
However, not all Peruvians have benefited equally from the expansion in access. Participation in early childhood educational development (Ciclo I, ISCED 01) remains limited, especially for the most disadvantaged children: in 2023, only 6% of children under the age of three were enrolled (compared to the OECD average of 36% and the OECD-LAC average of 9%), with participation largely concentrated among wealthier families (OECD, 2025[11]). For children from poor and marginalised communities, this has important implications for their development and future learning, as many enter school without the early experiences that support cognitive and social development. In school education, Peru records the highest level of socio-economic segregation compared to the OECD (see Figure 1.2) (OECD, 2023[20]). Disadvantaged students rarely attend the same schools as their advantaged peers, reducing the “peer effect” that such interactions can have in terms of raising the academic aspirations and achievement of children from lower socio-economic backgrounds (Cueto, León and Miranda, 2016[21]). This contributes to unequal learning outcomes: in PISA 2022, 87% of disadvantaged students scored below the baseline level in mathematics, compared to 57% of their advantaged peers. Indigenous learners, many of whom face poverty, rural isolation and language barriers, face additional barriers to learning (see Figure 1.2). In 2022, 93% of non-native Spanish speakers performed below the baseline in mathematics, compared to 65% of Spanish speakers – with even wider gaps in reading and science (MINEDU, 2024[22]).
Note: In Panel A data for Peru on primary, lower secondary and upper-secondary levels between 2012 and 2015 is missing. In Panel B, countries are ranked in ascending order of isolation index, which is the extent to which certain types of students (e.g. disadvantaged students) are isolated from other all other types of students or from a specific group of students (e.g. advantaged students), based on the schools they attend. In Panel C, “Location” is the aggregated from School Location as “Rural” (a village, hamlet or rural area (fewer than 3 000 people), a small town (3 000 to about 15 000 people) and “Urban” (a town (15 000 to about 100 000 people), a city (100 000 to about 1 000 000 people), a large city (1 000 000 to about 10 000 000 people), a megacity (with over 10 000 000 people).
Source: UIS (2024[23]), Number of students and enrolment/attendance rates by level of education, https://databrowser.uis.unesco.org/, (accessed on 9 October 2025); OECD (2023[10]) PISA database 2022, https://www.oecd.org/pisa/data/ (accessed on 23 September 2025); OECD (2023[20]), PISA 2022 Results (Volume I): The State of Learning and Equity in Education, PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/53f23881-en; and UIS (2023[24]), Participation rate of youth and adults in formal and non-formal education and training in the previous 12 months, 25 to 54-year- olds, both sexes (%), https://databrowser.uis.unesco.org/, (accessed on 9 October 2025).
Opportunities for further education and training beyond school also remain limited for those from poorer households and rural areas. For many, university is still out of reach, due to financial constraints, long distances to institutions or limited access to information and guidance to navigate their options. In 2023, young people aged 17 to 24 from the highest income group were over three times more likely to be enrolled in tertiary education than those from the lowest (INEI, 2024[25]). Adults with low levels of education and skills, especially those living in rural areas or working in the informal economy, also face significant barriers to learning. In 2022, only 3.9 percent of adults aged 25 to 54 participated in formal or non-formal education, compared to 12.9 percent across the OECD (see Figure 1.2). This is particularly important given 4.8% of adults aged 15 and over are illiterate, rising to 11.3% in rural areas (INEI, 2024[25]). Results from the 2018 OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) showed that 80% of adults in Peru scored below Level 2 in literacy and/or numeracy, compared to an OECD average of 27% (OECD, 2018[26]).
What can Peru learn from OECD policy and practice to improve equality of opportunity and access to education?
Policy message 4: Expand alternative models of provision, with a focus on the early years and adult education
Breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty in Peru requires targeted efforts at both ends of the learning journey. This means enabling young children from the poorest households to access the early support that lays the foundation for future learning and giving youth and adults more opportunities to engage in education and training. This report highlights two avenues to achieve this.
The first is to expand provision in the early years by considering a range of services in formal settings, communities, and homes. One approach would be to scale the recently introduced EduCuna, a model of integrated formal early education and care, and building on the existing network of pre-primary settings (Jardines, ISCED 02) to create more age-integrated settings enrolling children under 3. At the same time, strengthening services offered in non-formal, community- or family-based settings (PRONOEI) through better infrastructure and investment in educators’ training and exploring the option of regulated home-based care could further help expand the impact and reach of the ISCED 01 sector. These alternative services can offer families greater flexibility and create a formal employment pathway for the many informal caregivers already active across the country. It would be essential to steer the expansion of ISCED 01 services towards young children from disadvantaged communities, as they stand to gain the most for improved opportunities for early learning.
To ensure these efforts translate into high-quality learning experiences, MINEDU will need stronger capacity to guide the development of diverse and integrated services for children under age three. While holistic early childhood development naturally requires an intersectoral approach, with ministries such as the Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion (MIDIS) well placed to lead on childcare and development programmes in contexts of high poverty, without stronger integration of educational objectives from the onset, these programmes risk overlooking children’s foundational learning and cognitive development. Embedding early education more intentionally across the diverse models of provision would help ensure that young children are not only healthy and protected, but also supported in their early learning. This will require a clear mandate for MINEDU to lead on the educational dimension of early childhood services, alongside the resources, staffing and data systems needed to exercise effective leadership and coordination at all levels of the system.
In tertiary education and adult learning, blended provision, and mobile learning units offer promising ways to reach learners in remote areas, such as the Andean and Amazonian regions. While the development of fully digital programmes may not yet be advisable given the current state of quality assurance in Peru’s tertiary education, hybrid models could be effective, including models with offline options, such as downloadable content or apps that function without internet access, to reach communities with limited connectivity. These would allow students to begin their studies remotely and later transition to in-person instruction. In adult learning, recent initiatives show promise in expanding access to second-chance programmes for adults without basic education in rural and remote areas through mobile units, community spaces and online resources. Colombia’s SENA Centros de Formación which combine permanent training centres with mobile outreach, offer a relevant example.
Given the high share of informal workers in Peru, adult learning policies should include targeted support for this group. In Peru, 90% of workers who accessed vocational training or skills development programmes were in formal employment, while only 10% were in informal jobs (OECD, 2024[27]). Informal workers tend to acquire skills through self-training or informal apprenticeships, which makes it harder for them to upgrade or certify their competences. Peru has introduced regulations for the recognition of prior learning (RPL) through the certification of skills acquired in the workplace. This review recommends ways Peru can develop this RPL system, showing how modular curricula, aligned with the newly adopted National Qualifications Framework, can further advance learner mobility, with particular benefits for low-income and rural workers. Chile, Mexico and Spain illustrate how certification systems can help informal workers and those who lack formal schooling obtain recognised credentials for work-based skills, improving their prospects in both employment and further education.
Policy message 5: Improve socio-economic inclusion in schools and tertiary education institutions
Peru’s education system is characterised by a mixed provider landscape, with a large share of private institutions and a high degree of choice for families and students. However, a decentralised admissions system and unregulated tuition and selection processes create barriers that make meaningful choice elusive for many disadvantaged families, contributing to high levels of socio-economic segregation across institutions. This review highlights two policy areas that warrant further attention if Peru is to improve equity in access.
The first is admission policies. In both school and tertiary education, each institution operates its own application process. In the case of tertiary institutions, these often include competitive entrance exams, particularly at more selective universities. This decentralisation imposes considerable information and transaction costs, especially for students from lower socio-economic backgrounds whose families may lack the resources to guide them through the process. This report suggests how Peru could scale up its centralised school admissions platform, currently piloted for a sample of public schools. It also presents examples from countries like Chile and the United Kingdom, where central agencies handle all tertiary applications. These agencies typically manage a single online portal through which candidates apply and track their progress, while also publishing data on applications, entry requirements, and outcomes. This approach makes the process more transparent and accessible for students and reduces administrative burdens and risks of bias or corruption for institutions. The review also suggests Peru consider introducing a national school-leaving exam at the end of upper-secondary (Grade 11), as is the case in more than three-quarters of OECD countries. Such an exam could simplify tertiary admissions and offer a fair and consistent basis for certifying completion of secondary education and determining access to tertiary programmes (OECD, 2023[28]).
International experience also shows how Peru could better design tuition policies to promote greater social inclusion in private education and training. Currently private schools and TEIs remain largely free to set their own fees. Legislation aimed at improving transparency, introduced in 2014 for universities and in 2020 for schools, requires institutions to publish their tuition fees, which has encouraged some to lower excessively high charges (Congress of the Republic of Peru, 2014[29]; Presidency of the Republic of Peru, 2020[30]). However, fees often remain unaffordable for many students from low-income backgrounds, who are consequently excluded from elite private institutions and the advantages they offer, such as better access to further education and improved labour market outcomes. To promote fairer access, Peru could consider affirmative action strategies, such as preferential admission thresholds, or subsidising places to low-income students, funded through public scholarships or cross-subsidised by contributions from wealthier families. For instance, since 2016, Chile has subsidised tuition fees for eligible tertiary students from the lowest 60% of the income distribution in all public universities and private universities that opt into the programme, reducing direct costs and improving affordability for students.
Policy message 6: Break down demand-side barriers to give vulnerable learners a more equal start in their learning and greater chances to succeed later in life
Beyond expanding provision, Peru will need to tackle persistent demand-side barriers that prevent many of the most disadvantaged learners from accessing and staying in education, particularly during the early years and at the transition to tertiary education. For example, this review outlines how MINEDU could encourage greater uptake of early educational development services for children under 3 by further developing the existing parental information campaigns, so they go beyond raising awareness of the benefits of early education and the availability of services, to also emphasise government efforts to improve quality and the advantages for mothers of remaining in the labour market. These messages could be delivered through trusted channels, such as health centres and maternity wards. Another avenue to encourage enrolment is to use public funding more strategically to reduce financial barriers and encourage private ECEC providers to expand into underserved areas. For example, cost-sharing models could require wealthier families to pay fees, while guaranteeing subsidised places for those who cannot afford to pay.
This review argues that to break down barriers to tertiary education, Peru may need to consider broader financial support and more targeted career and academic guidance for vulnerable students. Through PRONABEC, Peru’s national scholarship and loan programme, the country has built a solid foundation to support disadvantaged students in accessing tertiary education. However, current funding levels remain insufficient to reach all deserving low-income students and those who receive financial support tend to enrol in university rather than professionally-oriented programmes. Peru could expand PRONABEC’s support by increasing the number of scholarships and loans for tertiary students, both in university and professionally-oriented tracks, and by gradually extending financial support to adult learning programmes. Given fiscal constraints, any increase in grant funding might need to prioritise programmes in fields that are critical to economic development and face skills shortages, such as the energy sector (Manpower, 2025[31]).
The review also highlights how better access to information and guidance could complement financial aid by helping students understand their options and improve their long-term employment prospects. This is particularly relevant in Peru, where many students who aspire to complete tertiary education either do not enrol or drop out before achieving their studies. Examples from OECD countries offer useful insights on how to improve tertiary enrolment, completion, and transitions into formal employment. These include developing a network of trained career counsellors in schools and TEIs to help students navigate academic and career choices and expanding access to academic tutoring for disadvantaged students. Information systems could also be strengthened. While students in Peru can now access data on the average labour market outcomes of tertiary programmes, the presence of multiple platforms can make this data difficult to navigate and information does not permit disaggregation by individual programme or institution. This review looks at how Peru could learn from the experience of OECD countries to develop a more user-friendly information portal that provides a single point of entry for students to access relevant data on tertiary programmes and labour market outcomes, recognising this as lever not just to improve equity but also to incentivise institutions to improve the quality and relevance of their programmes.
For many young people and adults in Peru, however, education and training take place outside tertiary institutions. Here, the review looks at models that could work to expand provision, in particular in rural areas where needs are greatest but government and employer resources limited. One is local learning hubs, which can serve as a centralised access point for training, career guidance, recognition of prior learning and digital services. Portugal’s Qualifica Centres offer a good example. Another are mobile training units, which can be connected to online resources to expand the delivery of vocational training and education in other key areas, such as literacy and digital skills.
Peru has put in place many of the core building blocks needed to strengthen the governance of its education and training system. National strategies now provide a more coherent vision to steer the development of the sector, particularly in tertiary education. Public spending on education has risen steadily over the past two decades, creating room for important reforms, from higher teacher salaries and investments in infrastructure to smaller student-teacher ratios. MINEDU has also built one of Latin America’s most advanced data systems to track student trajectories and evaluate learning outcomes. The SIAGIE platform, Peru’s Education Management and Information System, follows individual students throughout their time in the education system, while well-established national student assessments, household surveys, and representative observations in education settings and schools provide regular information on learning outcomes, teaching practices and school management.
This review looks at how Peru can draw on these strengths to address the equity and quality challenges discussed above. It focuses on three areas that underpin effective education governance: strengthening the capacity of central bodies to steer the system towards national goals; allocating public funding in a more transparent and strategic way; and building on Peru’s rich data infrastructure to improve access, use, and ultimately, support more informed decision-making across the system.
How does education governance and funding in Peru compare to OECD benchmarks?
Government spending on education in Peru has increased substantially over the past two decades, rising from 2.9% of GDP in 2003 to 4.2% in 2023 and from 14.7% to 18.9% of total government expenditure during the same period (see Figure 1.3) (UIS, 2023[24]). This growth is particularly notable given Peru’s tight fiscal space (OECD, 2023[9]). Government expenditure is oriented towards investment in the early levels of education, with 2.5% of total government expenditure allocated to ECEC, 5.5% to primary and 3.5% to lower secondary education (OECD, 2024[32]). Increased public spending has led to a rise in expenditure per student. For example, between 2013 and 2022, public spending per student more than doubled in secondary education (107%) and increased by 68% in pre-primary and 58% in primary education, marking a significant improvement, even if levels still remain below those of regional peers (INEI, 2022[33]). Tertiary education, which has received comparatively less public funding than other levels, relies more heavily on private spending, with 61% of total expenditure privately financed (OECD, 2022[34]). This overall pattern of spending is broadly positive: research shows that public spending on early education yields the highest social returns, particularly for children and families from less privileged backgrounds (Dougherty and Morabito, 2023[35]).
However, current funding allocations could be better designed to support equity and quality. Central government transfers are largely based on historical costs, and do not fully account for the additional costs of delivering education in sparsely populated rural areas, serving disadvantaged students, or running specialised technical programmes. This has led to significant disparities in funding per student across Peru’s regions and institutions. For example, in 2022, public expenditure per primary school student in Moquegua was almost 80% above the national average and 166% higher than in Ucayali, even though Ucayali has higher poverty rates Differences are also evident across institutions. On average, spending per student in university programmes is double that of professionally-oriented programmes (INEI, 2024[36]).
Note: In Panel A, data for OECD countries for 2022 and 2023 is not available. In Panel B, the OECD-LAC includes Chile, Costa Rica and Mexico, as data for Colombia is not available. In Panel D, institutions provide education and training programmes at the following ISCED levels: universities ISCED 6, 7, and 8; institutes ISCED 4, 5, and 6; and CETPROs ISCED 3 and 4.
Source: UIS (2024[37]), Government expenditure on education, https://databrowser.uis.unesco.org/ (accessed on 9 October 2025); OECD (2024[38]) Expenditure on educational institutions per full-time equivalent student, http://data-explorer.oecd.org/s/1c3 (accessed on 9 October 2025); OECD (2022[34]), Distribution of government, private and non-domestic expenditure on educational institutions, http://data-explorer.oecd.org/s/1ze (accessed on June 02, 2025); INEI (2024[36]), Perú Compendio Estadístico 2024 [Peru Statistical Compendium 2024], https://cdn.www.gob.pe/uploads/document/file/7366940/6284790-tomo-1-peru-compendio-estadistico-2024.pdf;
Beyond funding, Peru also faces an important governance challenge in aligning its large and complex landscape of institutions and providers with national education goals. From an international perspective, Peru’s national institutions, including those responsible for quality assurance and policymaking, are yet to develop many of the features that characterise strong central steering bodies, such as a degree of independence from short-term political pressures and special interest groups, strong technical expertise, adequate resourcing, and the capacity to coordinate across sectors and levels of government and engage a broad range of stakeholders (OECD, 2024[39]). These features are not only hallmarks of effective education governance, but also core institutional attributes of democratic and accountable public systems. This challenge is particularly pronounced in vocational education, where multiple central teams within MINEDU oversee policy design and delivery, provision is highly fragmented across a diverse mix of public and private institutions (see Figure 1.3).
What can Peru learn from OECD policy and practice to improve the governance of its education and skills sector?
Policy message 7: Establishing strong, independent central bodies capable of steering the system towards national goals
This review examines how Peru could strengthen central stewardship to develop more coherent education and training policies. As noted, perhaps the most urgent matter for Peru is the establishment of independent, professional, and well-resourced bodies with the authority to ensure consistent quality standards across the system (see Quality of programmes and outcomes above). Yet strengthening stewardship extends beyond quality assurance. It also requires strategic leadership to align actors around shared priorities, promote coherence across a fragmented institutional landscape, and ensure that education and training policies contribute meaningfully to national development goals.
Stronger national leadership is particularly pressing in the tertiary sector, where dominant private provision, strong university autonomy and institutional fragmentation make coherent policymaking challenging. In a positive move, in 2020 Peru developed the National Policy for Tertiary and Technical-Productive Education (PNESTP), which, for the first time, outlines a unified vision for vocational and tertiary education. The policy sets ambitious goals, from expanding equitable access to improving programme quality, academic staff, and research capacity.
To drive forward these ambitions, this review recommends Peru to consider establishing a central steering body for vocational and tertiary education. Colombia’s National Council for Higher Education (CESU) offers a useful model. It brings together representatives from public and private institutions, students, employers, and civil society to reconcile interests, monitor progress, and inform ongoing policy development, without displacing the operational responsibilities of existing agencies. A similar body in Peru could help coordinate efforts and sustain progress in key areas, such as clarifying TEIs institutional profiles and missions; improving transitions and permeability between Centres for Technical-Productive Education (CETPROS, ISCED 3-4), universities and professionally-oriented TEIs; and guiding the regional expansion of TEIs in a balanced and sustainable way. This is increasingly relevant as Peru’s Congress has approved the creation of over 40 new universities since 2022, often without viability studies or clear planning (Consejo Nacional de Educacion, 2024[40]).
At the same time, strengthening governance at the subnational level will be essential to ensure that tertiary and adult learning programmes are responsive to local labour market needs. Many OECD countries have established coordination councils, which can have both a regional and industry-specific focus, bringing together local governments, education and training providers, and employers. Similar bodies in Peru could support the development of competency frameworks, endorse new technical programmes, and, where appropriate, co-manage training initiatives or funds. Peru has already piloted national sectoral skills councils in areas such as sanitation, construction, tourism, mining, and agribusiness. These efforts offer a valuable blueprint to expand the model, not only into other emerging and strategic sectors such as manufacturing, logistics, and renewable energy, but also at a regional level. Strengthening the capacity of regional and local education authorities will be central if they are to facilitate dialogue between education providers, employers, and other local stakeholders.
Policy message 8: Review public funding mechanisms to better reflect need, and steer institutions to align more closely with broader societal objectives
The analysis focuses on two aspects of Peru’s education funding model that merit closer attention to promote greater quality, equity and efficiency: the way funds are allocated across regions and institutions, and the extent to which funding is used strategically to guide institutional behaviour in line with national priorities.
As a first step, Peru should consider reviewing the main allocation mechanism so that public funds allocated to education institutions better reflect need. One way to achieve this is to move from the current historical cost-based model to a formula-based approach. Internationally, well-designed funding formulas are increasingly recognised as effective tools for allocating current expenditure in an efficient, equitable, and transparent manner. As a complementary measure, strengthening redistribution policies, particularly for capital investment, can help reduce regional inequalities and ensure that all students, regardless of location, benefit from adequate learning environments. This is especially relevant for royalty transfers, which represent a major source of investment in education infrastructure and are disproportionately concentrated in resource-producing provinces – often among the wealthiest in the country (ComexPeru, n.d.[41]). The 2011 Colombian reform to modify royalty distribution offers valuable lessons for Peru. This reform expanded the distribution of royalties to include all municipalities, rather than limiting them to resource-producing regions. It also introduced new allocation criteria based on factors such as population size, poverty levels, unemployment rates, and investment needs, helping to channel more resources to low-income regions and municipalities (OECD, 2023[9]; Haddad, Bonet-Morón and Pérez-Valbuena, 2022[42]).
In parallel, Peru could make more strategic use of public funding to steer institutional behaviour in line with national goals. For instance, in early childhood and school education, this could involve offering public subsidies or scholarships for students attending lower-fee private institutions that meet quality standards. This approach would help reduce financial barriers and improve equity, while encouraging institutions to work towards national quality standards, such as teacher qualifications and alignment with the national curriculum. In the tertiary sector, as the quality assurance system matures (see Quality of programmes and outcomes above), public funding could be restricted to new programmes that are accredited and meet labour market needs. Targeted, programme-based funding could also complement formula-based allocation. Under this approach, TEIs would apply for funding to support programmes that advance specific policy goals, such as improving the qualifications and skills of academic staff, strengthening learner support and facilities for disadvantaged students, enhancing institutional governance, and building capacity for research and innovation.
Policy message 9: Use data more strategically to guide policy and track student outcomes
Peru has one of the most advanced education monitoring systems in the region, particularly in early childhood and school education. MINEDU’s Office of Quality Measurement of Learning has strong technical expertise and regularly conducts national student assessments, as well as surveys of teachers and school leaders. In parallel, the Education Management Information System (SIAGIE), managed by MINEDU, enables the tracking of individual student trajectories from their entry into the education system. This review identifies three ways in which Peru could build on these resources to expand the scope and impact of its robust datasets.
First, expanding the coverage of data collection would help fill critical gaps. In ECEC, administrative data and surveys primarily cover pre-primary education (Ciclo II, ISCED 02), while services for younger children (Ciclo I, ISCED 01) remain largely absent from national monitoring. As services for this age group expand, collecting data on enrolment, participation intensity, and both structural and process quality – particularly in pilot programmes such as EduCuna – will be essential to inform decisions about how to scale services in ways that ensure both quality and equity. At the other end of the learning cycle, Peru would benefit from more systematic assessments of future skills needs to identify where new or adapted tertiary and vocational programmes are needed to build sufficient human capital in strategic productive sectors. This means moving from the current ad hoc approach to skills assessment and anticipation to a more coordinated model involving collaboration across ministries, consultation with employers and industry representatives, and input from civil society.
Second, integrating data from different sectors offers a powerful way to expand the scope of existing datasets without requiring entirely new data collection efforts. For instance, in ECEC, linking administrative data on children and families across education, health, and social protection could help assess developmental risks among young children, identify where children with the greatest needs live, whether they are accessing ECEC services, and what barriers they face. In vocational and tertiary education, MINEDU is developing the Integrated Information System for Higher and Technical-Productive Education (SIIESTP). Building on this, Peru could move towards further integrated systems that link enrolment and graduation data with employment outcomes can support more robust tracking of student profiles and progress, including labour market performance of graduates in specific fields of study, as well as information on student progress, dropout and completion rates in each field and level of study. This is essential for monitoring both equity and relevance in the system, raise the visibility of professionally- oriented programmes with high labour-market returns, and identify underlying factors that enable their success.
The third area relates to how data are reported, accessed, and used. Shortening the time between data collection and publication – for example, in surveys of ECEC settings or national standardised student assessments – would allow national data to support more timely decision-making and enable planning at regional, local, and institutional levels. Developing practical resources to help frontline practitioners make use of the data to improve their day-to-day work could also support student learning. For example, in school education, some OECD systems have developed guidance to help schools organise internal moderation meetings and use standardised assessment results as a reference point for discussions about classroom marking standards and criteria interpretation. Such school-level reflections can support more reliable judgements of student progress and enhance teachers’ assessment literacy. Beyond internal use, improving access to data for external users, particularly researchers, can help generate new evidence and inform future policy and practice. OECD guidelines and experience illustrate how Peru could develop secure access options such as public-use anonymised datasets or supervised access to more sensitive files via secure on-site or remote platforms, responsible-use protocols and data-sharing partnerships with universities and research institutions (OECD, 2021[43]).
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← 1. OECD-LAC comprises the four OECD Member countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC): Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico.