Primary Education
Education in Peru through primary and secondary school is theoretically free for children from ages 7 to 16, although in practice inaccessible to many rural children. The model begins with pre-school education before children enter primary school for 6 grades.
Secondary Education
Secondary school consists of 5 grades. Many children, especially from country areas find it difficult to adapt to this new level especially as they are accustomed to a single teacher. Ongoing efforts are in place to try to close this gap.
Vocational Education
Vocational education is available from a variety of technological institutions and other similar facilities. Although mainly private, these are supervised and graded by the Ministry of Education that also licenses them.
Tertiary Education
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Higher education is available from private and public technical colleges and universities. Courses taken at the former require 3,000 hours of study (usually 3 years) and result in certification as technical professionals.
The oldest university in Peru is the Universidad Nacional Major de San Marcos founded in 1551 AD by decree of King Carlos V of Spain. Those students who manage to aspire to tertiary university education follow a hierarchy of degree courses similar to the American model.