Education in the colonial era was largely limited to the upper class. The wealthy either hired tutors or sent their children abroad. Although there were a few private schools in operation following the declaration of freedom in 1811, they languished throughout most of the nineteenth century. The only secondary school closed in 1822. By the end of the War of the Triple Alliance, perhaps as little as 14 % of the populace was literate.

In the early 1970s, less than 5 % of those entering rural elementary schools finished this course of study, as compared to 30 % of urban youngsters. Only 1 % of rural children finished secondary school; the figure for city children was 10 %. Rural schools also were plagued with high rates of student absenteeism and grade repetition. A 1980 survey showed a substantial improvement in the %age of children completing the elementary school cycle. The figure for who completed their course of privacy school studies had risen to 38 %. Although the completion rate for rural students climbed to 25 %, this figure was substantially below that for urban youngsters.

In the late 1970s, the Ministry of Education and Worship attempted to deal with the crisis in rural education by developing a bilingual program for monolingual Guaraní. The program was designed to develop basic oral skills in Guaraní and oral and written skills in Spanish. Guaraní literature also was available at the secondary and university levels.

Elementary education in Paraguay is free and nominally compulsory for children from 6 to 12 years of age. While the number of schools is insufficient, 97 % of the adult population is literate. In 1997, 905,800 pupils were listed in primary schools and 327,800 students attended secondary, vocational, and teacher-training schools. About 42,300 students attended institutions of higher education, which included the National University of Asunción (1890) and the Catholic University of Our Lady of Asunción (1960).