El Salvador
Last updated July 15, 2026
Composite GEFRI Score
Severe readiness constraints across dimensions
El Salvador shows severely limited readiness to meet the challenges and opportunities of education in a rapidly changing world (31st percentile worldwide). Key structural conditions limit capacity to plan, implement, and sustain forward-looking reforms.
- Global percentile
- 31st
- Global rank
- #124
- Regional rank
- #23
- Viewing data for
Country profile
El Salvador faces substantial readiness constraints across core dimensions. Its weakest results are in Innovation (35, 25th percentile) and School Access and Gender Parity (5, 19th percentile). These gaps continue to weigh on overall readiness.
Uneven scores across dimensions show where readiness conditions are less aligned. Literacy or tertiary enrollment gaps thin the talent pipeline and limit the country’s capacity to develop future-ready skills.
Sparse R&D investment and a small research workforce slow experimentation and delay new ideas from reaching learners. Policy execution and regulatory capacity remain weak, leaving reforms fragmented and hard to sustain. Girls outperform boys in secondary pathways, adding pressure to address male dropout risks.
Human Capital and Governance present a near-term leapfrog opportunity: performance is just below the global average, backed by enough observed data to support forward planning. Regionally, School Access and Gender Parity lags peers the most, signalling where investment could have the highest impact.
Most indicators are observed rather than imputed, so estimation uncertainty is limited.
Key insights
Falls below many peers at the 31st percentile.
Places 124th worldwide.
Holds a regional position of 23rd within Latin America & Caribbean.
Scores range from Infrastructure (57.2) to Access & Parity (5.0), reflecting variation across dimensions.
Trails regional peers most clearly in Access & Parity.
Regional peers: Latin America & Caribbean
Composite GEFRI Score