Financing for equity in primary and secondary education
1. Education resources to subnational governments
2. Education resources to schools
3. Education resources to students and families
4. Social policies and family support programmes
Introduction
In Ecuador, the Ministry of Education, under the Ley Orgánica de Educación Intercultural (LOEI), oversees education at the initial, basic, and Bachillerato levels within the National Education System. The Ministry exercises exclusive competence over educational resources while working alongside metropolitan districts and decentralized autonomous governments. The LOEI incorporates equity and inclusion principles into the National Education System and provides the legal framework for guiding resource distribution based on social, population, and territorial equity, and ensures preferential treatment for vulnerable students to support their access to and retention in education. For instance, the poorest regions have higher per-pupil spending than the richest regions.
The Ministry’s budget includes a component dedicated to equality policies; however, while higher education regulations specify resource distribution methodologies, no exact formula exists for basic education.
1. Education resources to subnational governments
In Ecuador, two processes of delegating powers occur simultaneously: decentralization, which transfers responsibilities and resources from the central government to provincial, municipal, and parish governments (Decentralized Autonomous Governments, GAD); and deconcentration, which shifts services from a national entity (ministry) to its regional, provincial, district, or circuit agencies. The national entity maintains control over service quality and performance.
The Ministry of Education, Sports, and Culture operates under the deconcentration model and has established several levels of educational management, including educational zones, districts, and circuits. These levels facilitate the coordination of processes, services, and decision-making across the country, which may enable a response to the needs of students, teachers, and families (Ministry of Education, Sports, and Culture, 2025). The central, zonal, district, and circuit management levels serve as operational bodies for the implementation of educational policies, management of resources, and provision of educational services, all under the supervision and guidance of the Ministry.
The districts are in charge of the operation of schools, including the management and financing of school personnel and the provision of educational resources. Additionally, the Zonas are responsible for the coordination of the school districts and for providing them with technical support.
Public schools are mainly based on historical criteria, from the central level to the district-level offices of the Ministry of Education.
Central government transfers are discretionary and tend to benefit regions at the lower end of the socioeconomic status (SES) distribution, with the exception that education spending in quintile 5 of SES is higher than in quintile 4. The allocation of funding in Ecuador is influenced by the focus on investments in disadvantaged rural regions.
Local governments (GADs) obtain resources from the central government and can also generate their own revenue, as outlined in the Constitution and the Organic Code of Territorial Organization, Autonomy, and Decentralization (COOTAD). This legislation specifies that GADs' funding sources include their own revenue (both tax and non-tax), transfers from the General State Budget (PGE), donations, participation in revenue from the exploitation of natural resources, and external or internal financing for investment projects (National Assembly of Ecuador, 2008; National Assembly of Ecuador, 2010).
The Constitution and COOTAD stipulate that 21% of permanent revenue (such as taxes) and 10% of non-permanent revenue (such as oil revenue) from the PGE must be allocated to GADs each year. This allocation is based on territorial equity criteria, which take into account population, unmet basic needs, and administrative capacity (National Assembly of Ecuador, 2010).
2. Education resources to schools
The Constitution mandates that public education be financed by the State in a "timely, regular, and sufficient" manner, with resource distribution based on social, population, and territorial equity. In practice, the education budget, part of the General State Budget, must cover not only teacher salaries and operational costs but also programs to increase coverage, improve infrastructure, strengthen inclusion, and address cultural and territorial gaps.
Specialised and Inclusive Education
Specialised and Inclusive Education ensures access, permanence, participation, and academic achievement for students aged 0 to 19 with special educational needs (SEN), including those with disabilities or conditions requiring specialised support, particularly among the first quintiles of poverty. They are governed by the Regulations regarding the care of students with special educational needs (2013) and operate through Specialised Educational Institutions (SEIs), regular schools, and Inclusion Support Units (UDAIs). The model integrates students into regular schools whenever possible, providing additional services and resources when full inclusion is not feasible. Regular schools must adopt measures to admit students with SEN, and the possibility of inclusion is assessed by UDAIs in public institutions or private psycho-pedagogical centres for private schools. SEIs are specialised by type of disability and serve only one category of students. Additionally, thousands of teachers have been trained in inclusive pedagogical strategies through free courses such as “Attention to Diversity” and “Educational Support Strategies”.
As part of the inclusive education framework, Hospital Classrooms provide educational support to children and adolescents experiencing academic delays due to extended hospital stays, ensuring continuity in learning. The Centres for Adolescent Offenders (CAI) programme guarantees access, retention, learning, and completion of education for adolescents and young offenders, offering a comprehensive, quality educational process adapted to their circumstances. Finally, the Ministry of Education has strengthened educational initiatives for students with special needs by creating District Inclusion Support Units (UDAI), which provide psycho-pedagogical assessments, guidance, support, and follow-up to improve inclusion processes in educational institutions.
3. Education resources to students and families
School uniforms
The Ministry of Education guarantees the provision of free school uniforms for students in public and fiscomisionaleducation. Additionally, students with disabilities also benefit from the Hilando el Desarrollo (Weaving Development) Programme, which provides school uniforms to students in public and semi-private schools throughout the country. Furthermore, the Ecuadorian government also acquires and distributes textbooks.
The Ministry of Education, through its decentralized agencies, distributes these educational resources to public and semi-private schools in Ecuador.
School Transportation
Since 2015, Ecuador, through its Ministry of Education, has implemented a free school transportation program for educational institutions that absorbed other schools, whether through mergers or closures nationwide, provided the distance between schools was greater than 2.5 km. This process was part of a reorganisation of the educational system. The school transportation service aimed to guarantee students' access to and retention in the national education system, given the risk of dropout or abandonment when schools near their homes closed, forcing students to travel longer distances to school.
Scholarships for People with Disabilities
Private and subsidized educational institutions shall grant scholarships to people with disabilities in cases where there is no nearby public educational offer to address their educational needs. These scholarships shall be considered within the percentage of scholarship allocation that they must grant, in accordance with the guidelines established by the National Educational Authority.
4. Social policies and family support programmes
Bono de Desarrollo Humano Variable (Variable Human Development Voucher)
The Bono de Desarrollo Humano (BDH), a sub-programme of the Ministry of Social and Economic Inclusion, was launched in 1998 under the name Bono Solidario (Solidarity Voucher). Its primary aim is to provide immediate poverty alleviation through cash transfers that increase household consumption capacity, while also promoting long-term human capital development to prevent the intergenerational transmission of poverty.
To improve the standard of living for families with minor children, a variable component was introduced, calculated based on the number of children in families receiving the BDH who are classified as living in extreme poverty according to the 2013 Social Register index (up to 18 points). The programme strengthens family capacities while promoting co-responsibility through a family accompaniment mechanism and conditional enrolment and attendance in the education system for children aged 5 to 17. This ensures that children and adolescents can access their rights to education, health, and food. Preference is given to the female head of household, spouse, or primary decision-maker in the household.
Contingency Transfers and Additional Support
Programmes implemented or expanded in crisis situations, such as contingency transfers to vulnerable families, have reached millions of families during the COVID-19 pandemic. These transfers included support for education, health, and social protection, aiming to address the socioeconomic consequences for households and facilitate continued studies for students.
5. School meal programmes
Programa de Alimentación Escolar (School Feeding Programme)
The Programa de Alimentación Escolar (PAE) was established in August 1999 under Ministerial Agreement No. 19-60 to provide lunch and snacks to schoolchildren. Since May 2012, the Undersecretariat of School Administration has managed the programme, ensuring quality resources and stakeholder participation in accordance with the Ministry of Education’s Organic Statute. As of March 16, 2010, the lunch modality was eliminated (Agreement No. 0260-10, Annex No. 04) and replaced with breakfast and snacks as the primary services. Breakfast is provided to pre-basic and first-year basic education students in rural areas, while snacks are offered to general basic education students in marginal urban areas. Students in Millennium educational units—schools serving historically neglected populations—continue to receive lunch.
The programme is regulated by Organic Law and is designed as a nutritional supplement, providing up to 15% of the daily caloric intake for children and young people, ensuring they do not go more than four hours without food. In practice, the programme currently functions as a breakfast and snack service rather than a full meal programme.
In 2024, a pilot programme (PMA) was launched to provide nutritious meals in 14 educational institutions. The initiative aims to create a management model for delivering fresh food to children in priority regions, including Cayambe, Pedro Moncayo, Manta, Santa Elena, Alausí, San Miguel de Bolívar, Guaranda, Portoviejo, and Guayaquil. It involves parents in meal preparation and local producers as suppliers, promoting local economic activity and prioritizing culturally relevant foods. Institutions located in areas with high poverty and food vulnerability rates were prioritized, where students are at greater risk of malnutrition and food insecurity.
In recent years, Ecuador has introduced new school feeding models with a sustainable, territorial approach. The New Territorial School Feeding Model aims to provide students with fresh, locally produced food.
This profile was reviewed by Alex Augusto Moreno Carrión, Commercial Engineer, Banking and Finance Engineer, Master in Strategic Management and Master in Financial Management and María José Rivas, Director of Specialized and Inclusive Education at the Ministry of Education.
