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Ecuador Training and Education
Army conscripts received their training in the units to which
they were assigned. The quality of basic training depended greatly
on the importance attached to it by the brigade commander. In an
effort to standardize unit training, the Department of Instruction
was created in army headquarters in 1988. Special ranger,
underwater demolition, parachute, and other similar courses were
given at brigade level. Upon attaining the rank of corporal,
conscripts accepted for enlistment for further service could apply
to one of several NCO schools. Each school included a core
curriculum accompanied by training in a military occupational
specialty at such facilities as the armor school at Riobamba or the
engineers' school at Esmeraldas. The intense competition and the
difficulty of the courses produced a high dropout rate among NCO
candidates.
Cadets preparing for commissioning as army second lieutenants
studied at the Eloy Alfaro Advanced Military School (Escuela
Superior Militar "Eloy Alfaro") in Parcayacu, approximately fifteen
kilometers north of Quito. Candidates had to complete the ninth
grade of school and pass a battery of written examinations,
interviews, and psychological screening. In 1987 approximately 130
cadets graduated from the school's three-year course of study,
which corresponded to the final three years of high school. The
Eloy Alfaro school offered separate curricula for cadets opting for
combat arms (infantry, armor, artillery, engineers, and signals),
service branches (administration, supply, transportation), and
service support branches (health, military justice, cartography).
Observers considered the school's quarters, sports facilities, and
training areas to be excellent. Additional construction was
expected to allow enrollment to climb from 500 in 1987 to 800
cadets by 1989.
Prior to promotion, lieutenants and captains each attended
separate nine-month courses at the Advanced Training Institute
(Escuela de Perfeccionamiento). Courses covered tactical
operations, integration of the various service arms, and
branch-oriented training. Total enrollment was about 165.
The Army War Academy (Academia de Guerra del Ejército), located
in a southern suburb of Quito, prepared majors for command and
general staff posts or for assignments to service elements at
brigade and higher echelons. The study material corresponded to
that of the United States Army Command and General Staff College at
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The academy offered a two-year program
for officers of combat arms and a one-year program for service and
service support officers. Enrollment in 1987 was forty-five in the
combat arms track and seventy in the service tracks.
The Army Polytechnic Institute (Escuela Politécnica del
Ejército--Espe), located in Quito, combined the functions of a
technical training school, a technical college, and a postgraduate
scientific and engineering university. Espe included undergraduate
departments of civil, mechanical, and electronic engineering as
well as geography. A graduate-level program consisted of industrial
and systems engineering. Although administered along quasi-military
lines, Espe had a largely civilian faculty and student body.
Military attendees ranged from soldiers from the enlisted ranks
through mid-level officers. Several Espe dependent institutes
offered nondegree courses in basic sciences, languages, computer
programming and systems analysis, and industrial administration.
One Espe branch at Latacunga, the Advanced Technical Institute of
the Armed Forces, offered practical training in automotive
mechanics, electronics, telecommunications, and automatic data
processing.
The Institute of Higher National Studies at Quito offered a
one-year course for ranking military officers of all three services
and for civilian officials. Comparable to the National Defense
University in Washington, the institute offered a curriculum
focused on the planning and execution of policies at the highest
levels of government. The NSC supervised the operation of the
institute.
Each of the services operated a number of schools for children
in the first through the ninth grades. Although originally intended
to help families of military personnel avoid difficulties arising
from divergent school calendars in the Costa (coastal region) and
the Sierra, the schools also accepted children of civilians on a
tuition basis. Ecuadorians rated these schools highly; as a result,
competition for admission was keen. Graduates of the armed forces
schools had an advantage in applying for admission to one of the
service academies.
Data as of 1989
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