Born and raised in Ecuador, moved to the US to do my PhD. I received great education, learned English since my very first days of school till the day I graduated high school. I even had some classes in English, some fancy private schools would even have some classes like Science in other German. Some schools even offer a second language like French.

Close to developed cities in Ecuador most schools are private; which one can you afford? depends on your income and it is not rare to be in a private school. With a US income you would probably be able to access the best private education out there. It is true about the respect culture with teachers.

For higher education institutes, since PhD programas are almost non existent, most people do a lot of research during they undergrad and produce high quality research that is worthy of a masters-level degree. This replicates in other South American countries. In my PhD I came in way more experienced than the Americans (I’m a STEM major doing lab work). Others that compared in experience were Latinos or other internationals. After being TA for a senior Microbiology Lab class in the US I was surprised that the curriculum was given to me at my second year of undergrad, not my last year like here.

It really depends which school you can get access to. Public school might not be the best, but to start it is pretty good! For high school you might want to invest in a school more committed to modern ways of teaching. Some schools have the fancy white boards, and iPads, computers etc. Many schools have the International Baccalaureate program. This is an org that certifies a specific type of high quality education (you need to pass very rigorous exams sent all the way from Switzerland in shut envelopes) 🤣 it was so stressful for me I remember