<P> After the 1990 election, the Chamorro government placed education in the hands of critics of Sandinista policy, who imposed more conservative values on the curriculum . A new set of textbooks was produced with support from the United States Agency for International Development (AID), which had provided similar help during the Somoza era . </P> <P> Despite the Sandinistas' determined efforts to expand the education system in the early 1980s, Nicaragua remained an undereducated society in 1993 . Even before the Contra War and the economic crisis that forced spending on education back to the 1970 level, the education system was straining to keep up with the rapidly growing school - age population . Between 1980 and 1990, the number of children between five and fourteen years of age had expanded by 35% . At the end of the Sandinista era, the literacy rate had declined from the level attained at the conclusion of the 1980 literacy campaign . Overall school enrollments were larger than they had been in the 1970s, however . Especially in the countryside, access to education had broadened dramatically . But a substantial minority of primary school - age children and three - quarters of secondary school - age students were not in school, and the proportion of students who completed their primary education had not advanced beyond the 1979 level . Even by Central American standards, the Nicaraguan education system was performing poorly . </P> <P> Academic grading in Nicaragua works on a 100 - point scale . For primary school and high school levels, a 60 is good enough to pass, while for further levels the pass grade is 70 . Students who attain from 60 to the pass grade get the chance to take one extra test that reviews the year's topics and in which a 70 is needed to achieve a pass grade . </P>

What is the average number of years of schooling for citizens of nicaragua 6 8 10 12