Most of the advice I give families is about curriculum — Cambridge or IB, which subjects, which university system. In Ecuador the first question is different and more consequential: which legal route are you on? There are two extraordinary offerings here with different requirements, different paperwork, and a different relationship with the ministry, and a family who picks the wrong one spends a year fixing it. That question comes before anything I would normally talk about.
Route one: educación abierta
Your child is formally enrolled at an accredited Ecuadorian public or private school that is licensed to offer a distance programme. The school holds the accreditation, follows the national curriculum, and handles promotion — the domestic record is theirs to issue. For an expatriate family this is frequently the simpler path, because the accreditation question is answered by the institution rather than by you. It is also the route that sits most comfortably alongside what we do: the Ecuadorian school carries the domestic side, and our Cambridge or IB teaching runs in the morning block alongside it.
Route two: educación en casa
This is the non-formal route, and the regulation is explicit that its development is the exclusive responsibility of the family. Learning is accredited by sitting evaluations before the education system, and — critically — a school may not offer it as an ordinary modality or issue promotions for it. That means no provider, including us, can hand you an Ecuadorian promotion off the back of a homeschooling programme. Families who choose this route are taking on the accreditation relationship themselves, which some do very capably. What they should not do is take it on under the impression that a provider is carrying it for them.
Why expatriate families get this wrong most often
Because they arrive from countries where "homeschooling" is one thing, and Ecuador treats it as two with a mandatory national curriculum running underneath both. Cuenca is where I see this most — one of the largest North American expatriate communities in Latin America, a great many of them assuming the regulatory environment resembles the one they left. Ecuadorian lawyers now publish guidance specifically for foreigners in Cuenca on this point, which tells you how common the confusion is. And the consequence is not theoretical: families who have not met the acuerdo’s conditions have been brought before child-protection boards and required to enrol.
What we actually do, stated against that background
We teach Cambridge IGCSE and A-Level, Pearson Edexcel, the IB Diploma, and American AP, in live groups of four to six, in the Ecuadorian morning — we are eight hours ahead, so a seven o’clock class here is three in the afternoon for our teachers, and for a student in jornada vespertina the morning is free anyway. We are not an accredited Ecuadorian institution, we do not provide educación en casa, and we do not issue Ecuadorian promotions or títulos. What we produce is an internationally examined record that sits alongside whatever domestic arrangement you hold.
One genuine advantage worth naming
Ecuador is dollarised, so our fees are quoted and invoiced in the currency families already use. Across our Latin American coverage that is true only here and in Panama — in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile and Peru a family carries exchange-rate exposure on a multi-year education commitment. It is not an academic argument and I would not pretend it is, but for a household planning five years of schooling it is a real one.
And where a local option is the better answer
If what a family needs is Ecuadorian accreditation with structured support, an accredited educación abierta provider is the right choice and I would say so. If a child is settled in a good Quito or Guayaquil school with every subject they need, that school will serve them well. Our value is specific: an internationally examined qualification, subjects a small school cannot staff, and reach into Cuenca, the coast, and the Amazon where the tier does not exist. Where none of that applies, we are not the answer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which route should we choose?+
That belongs with you, MINEDUC, and your distrito educativo rather than with us. Broadly, educación abierta answers the accreditation question through an institution and is often simpler for expatriate families; educación en casa puts that relationship on the family directly.
Can you issue an Ecuadorian promotion or título?+
No. The regulation is explicit that a school may not directly issue promotions or títulos for educación en casa, and we are not an accredited Ecuadorian institution in any case. We issue nothing domestic — we teach toward Cambridge, Edexcel, IB and AP examinations.
Why do fees matter differently in Ecuador?+
Because the country is dollarised, so our USD fees carry no exchange-rate exposure. Across Latin America that is true only here and in Panama.
What are the class times?+
We are eight hours ahead, so classes land in the Ecuadorian morning — the free half of the day for jornada vespertina students. After-school and morning blocks are both available, since we run two teaching teams in different time zones.
