ABSTRACT
Popular education in Andean America has changed, while the concept retains its essential characteristics. This chapter discusses the educational disparities that have been observed within the Ecuadorian rural sector and of how they have changed over time with the expansion of public education. Successive Ecuadorian governments have been forced to recognise that in spite of ever increasing investment in educational provision, major variation in the quality and quantity of education available in the rural sector persists. The nuclearisation programme in Ecuador, inaugurated in 1974, and slowly expanded since then, aims to promote community development through the concentration of educational resources in the target areas, as part of a multifaceted development programme. Finally, both nuclearisation and non-formal education originated spontaneously in rural areas of Bolivia and Brazil respectively. Educational provision within the rural sector varies from place to place both quantitatively and qualitatively and this inevitably affects patterns of attainment.
