Título II · Capítulo II Sección Cuarta. Educación

The liberty of teaching and of teaching criterion is guaranteed. It is the obligation of the State to provide and facilitate education to its inhabitants without any discrimination. The foundation and maintenance of cultural educational centers and museums are declared to be of public utility and necessity.

Education has as its primary purpose the integral development of the human person, knowledge of national and universal reality and culture.

Education, instruction, social formation and the systematic teaching of the Constitution of the Republic and of human rights are declared of national interest.

The family is the source of education and parents have the right to choose that which is to be imparted to their minor children. The State may subsidize free private educational centers and the law shall regulate matters relating to this subject. Private educational centers shall operate under the inspection of the State. They are obligated to fulfill, at least, the official study plans and programs. As centers of culture they shall enjoy exemption from all kinds of taxes and municipal levies.

Religious teaching is optional in official establishments and may be imparted within ordinary hours, without any discrimination.

The State shall contribute to the support of religious teaching without any discrimination.

The inhabitants have the right and the obligation to receive initial, pre-primary, primary and basic education, within the age limits established by law.

Education provided by the State is free.

The State shall provide and promote scholarships and educational credits.

Scientific, technological and humanistic education constitute objectives that the State shall orient and permanently expand.

The State shall promote special, diversified and out-of-school education.

Literacy is declared of national urgency and it is a social obligation to contribute to it. The State shall organize and promote it with all necessary resources.

The administration of the educational system shall be decentralized and regionalized.

In schools established in zones of predominantly indigenous population, instruction shall preferably be imparted in bilingual form.

Owners of industrial, agricultural, livestock and commercial enterprises are obligated to establish and maintain, in accordance with the law, schools, day-care centers and cultural centers for their workers and school population.

The State shall promote the economic, social and cultural advancement of the teaching profession, including the right to retirement that makes its effective dignification possible.

The rights acquired by the national teaching profession are minimum and non-waivable. The law shall regulate these matters.

The agricultural and livestock study, learning, exploitation, commercialization and industrialization are declared of national interest. The National Central School of Agriculture is created as a decentralized, autonomous entity, with legal personality and its own patrimony; it must organize, direct and develop the Nation's agricultural, livestock and forestry study plans at the secondary-education level; and it shall be governed by its own organic law, with an allocation of not less than five percent of the ordinary budget of the Ministry of Agriculture corresponding to it.

The State recognizes and promotes science and technology as fundamental bases of national development. The law shall regulate pertinent matters.

Titles and diplomas whose issuance corresponds to the State have full legal validity. Rights acquired through the exercise of the professions accredited by such titles shall be respected, and no provisions of any kind that limit or restrict them shall be issued.