Education in Puerto Rico is overseen by the Department of Education of Puerto Rico under the Government of Puerto Rico, which provides primary and secondary school education. Instruction in Puerto Rico is compulsory between the ages of 5 and 18, which comprises the elementary and high school grades. Students in Puerto Rico may attend either public or private schools. As of 2003, there were 1521 public schools and 562 private schools in the island. The literacy rate of the Puerto Rican population was 94.1% in 2002; when divided by gender, this is distributed as 93.9% for males and 94.4% for females. According to the 2000 Census, 60.0% of the population attained a high school degree or higher level of education, and 18.3% has a bachelor's degree or higher.

Education system

The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico grants the right to an education to every citizen on the island. To this end, public schools in Puerto Rico provide free and non-sectarian education at the elementary and secondary levels.

The public school system is funded by the state and is operated Puerto Rico Department of Education (Departamento de Educación del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico). The department employs over 45 thousand teachers of which 32,000 have full-time tenureships and are organized under the independent union Teachers' Federation of Puerto Rico. The remaining teachers are either temporary or contracted on a yearly basis.