Peru Declares School Infrastructure Emergency With 31,000 Schools at Risk of Collapse

PERU · EDUCATION

Peru has declared its public school infrastructure in a state of emergency, with 31,000 schools estimated at risk of collapse. The decree orders a full rebuild of how the country plans, builds and maintains its classrooms.

What Peru’s school infrastructure emergency decree actually orders

The measure is Supreme Decree 013-2026-MINEDU, published in the official gazette El Peruano on 27 August. President Keiko Fujimori signed it at the Government Palace on 26 August, with Education Minister José Antonio Chang countersigning.

The school infrastructure emergency covers every public school in the country. Its stated goal is to close the classroom gap faster and to strengthen planning, management and maintenance.

The Education Ministry now has 30 working days to draft the rules for a national school-infrastructure system. That includes a legal proposal creating a governing body attached to the ministry.

The reform separates two jobs that have long blurred together. The ministry keeps policy and planning, while execution, technical supervision and oversight move to the new entity.

Why 31,000 schools are considered at risk

The figure comes from Luis Lescano, a former president of the National Education Council. He cited data attributed to the Education Ministry and the Foreign Trade Chamber, broadcast by Panamericana Televisión.

More than 55 percent of Peru’s public schools would be in danger in a strong earthquake or a severe El Niño. Between 26 and 27 percent of the at-risk schools are already in critical condition.

The rest need reinforcement or outright reconstruction, Lescano said. Many rural buildings predate Peru’s modern seismic code by decades.

Cajamarca, in the northern highlands, leads the list with more than 4,000 vulnerable schools. Cusco follows with more than 2,000, and metropolitan Lima has over 400.

The bill the decree does not pay

The same reporting estimates the school-infrastructure gap at 170 billion soles (US$50.7 billion). That is the money needed for repairs and upgrades at public institutions nationwide.

The school infrastructure emergency decree does not provide any of it. Its Article 4 says implementation comes from the ministry’s existing budget, without new Treasury funds.

That is the catch at the heart of the announcement. An emergency declaration speeds up procedures and procurement, but it does not create money.

The decree’s own preamble admits the scale of the problem. It cites ministry reports warning of a significant infrastructure gap and of governance failures that block its closure.

How Peru’s classrooms fell so far behind

Peru has declared education emergencies before, most recently during the pandemic years. Each acknowledged the same building gap, and each expired without closing it.

The decree’s preamble cites a maintenance report from Pronied, the national school-infrastructure program. It describes maintenance needs that exceed the resources available.

School construction is split among national programs, regional governments and more than 1,800 municipalities. Smaller districts often lack the engineers to execute complex works.

The school infrastructure emergency is meant to end that fragmentation. Whether it does depends on rules that do not yet exist.

Earthquakes and El Niño set the real deadline

Peru sits on the boundary of the Nazca and South American plates, one of the most active seismic zones on Earth. The Geophysical Institute of Peru has mapped areas where a quake of up to magnitude 8.8 is possible.

A quake on 18 July damaged schools in the central Junín region. The ministry has since opened 68 temporary classrooms there to keep lessons going.

Climate risk runs alongside the seismic one, and coverage of the school infrastructure emergency notes the El Niño alert directly. The national weather service warned this week of extreme rain in 65 provinces.

The Peruvian school year runs from March to December, so classrooms are full right now. Every month of delay leaves children studying in buildings treated as at risk.

What the school infrastructure emergency means for business

For construction and engineering firms, the decree could open one of Peru’s largest public-works pipelines. Emergency rules in Peru typically allow faster contracting and direct procurement.

For foreign families, the public system’s condition shapes the national debate more than daily life. Most expatriates use private schools, which sit outside this decree.

The first test is the 30-working-day deadline, which expires in early October. The ministry must deliver both the operating rules and the legal design of the new authority.

The second test is money, with Peru’s 2027 budget bill due in Congress within days. Regional and municipal elections on 4 October will add pressure to fund the promise.

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