Public education was a higher priority than health care for government spending, and statistics reflected this disparity. School attendance and literacy in general increased notably in El Salvador as a whole during the twentieth century, particularly during the 1960s, when an ambitious program of school construction was carried out. Officially, literacy increased from 26.2 % of the adult population in 1930 to 59.7 % in 1971. By 1980 only 31 % of the population aged ten years or older was considered illiterate.

The Salvadoran education system included one year of preschool, nine years of basic education, three years of secondary education, and higher education at two universities and several specialized postsecondary institutions. The curriculum at the basic and secondary levels, developed by the Ministry of Education, was uniform throughout the nation. The provision of education, suffered from a rural-urban dichotomy. nationwide statistics displayed the weakness of the school system on the secondary level; in a 1976 study, only 34 % of students reached grade nine, and 15 % reached grade twelve.

Salvadoran law mandates free, compulsory elementary public schools through the 9th grade. Education through the 12th grade is available, and students completing 12 grades obtain the bachillerato degree (high school diploma). enforcement is often lax, particularly in rural areas and in urban slums, and the civil war of the 1980s damaged educational programs. El Salvador has about 3,200 primary and secondary schools with a total enrollment of 1.3 million students. But only slightly more than half of the school-age children actually attend school, and only a third finish the 9th grade. According to a 2001 estimate for people over age 15, the literacy rate was 89 %—89 % for men and 87.9 % for women.