DistantNews
Support us
🇪🇨 Ecuador /Culture & Society

Shadow teachers change in Ecuador, impacting families

From El Comercio · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources New plan
  • Ecuador's Ministry of Education issued new guidelines in May 2026 for external support staff in schools.
  • The changes reclassify "shadow teachers" as "external support teachers" and require them to be education professionals.
  • Families worry the new rules will increase costs and reduce the availability of support for students with disabilities.

New directives from Ecuador's Ministry of Education, issued in May 2026, are set to alter the landscape for external support personnel in educational institutions, sparking debate among families and specialists regarding the cost and availability of assistance for students with disabilities.

The new directive replaces the designation of shadow teacher with external support teacher and classifies support staff into three groups: external support teacher, therapeutic companion, and personal care assistant.

— Ministry of EducationDescribing the new classification of support roles.

The updated guidelines replace the term "shadow teacher" with "external support teacher" and categorize support staff into three groups: external support teacher, therapeutic companion, and personal care assistant. A significant change mandates that the role of external support teacher must be filled by a certified education professional. Furthermore, families must now provide medical reports to justify the need for this in-school support.

Andrea Simbaña, a former shadow teacher, explained that her role was not to replace the main teacher but to identify a student's specific needs, recognize learning barriers, and coordinate strategies with teachers and family. Previously, families bore the cost of these support figures, often hiring individuals with technical training. However, the new regulation restricts family involvement primarily to personal care, requiring educational support to be delivered by professionals.

Her work seeks to identify the student's needs, detect barriers to learning, and connect those needs with pedagogical strategies applied in coordination with teachers and the family.

— Andrea SimbañaExplaining the role of a shadow teacher.

This shift raises concerns about increased costs. Cynthia Andino, president of the Aleluya Foundation of Ecuador, noted that external support teachers can charge between $600 and $800 per month, sometimes exceeding $1,000. Simbaña indicated costs can range from $300 to $1,000 monthly depending on the student's needs and the support schedule. Organizations fear that restricting the role to certified professionals could limit the supply of support staff and drive up prices, potentially impacting students with autism and other disabilities who rely on this individualized assistance.

An external support teacher can charge between 600 and 800 dollars monthly, and in some cases, the value exceeds 1,000 dollars.

— Cynthia AndinoHighlighting the current costs of external support teachers.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by El Comercio in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

More Stories

From Our Blog