At the
beginning of an independent Peru, the Education branch was known as that of "Public Instruction", and was part of a multi-pronged ministry that included the sectors of Justice, Worship (or Ecclesiastical Affairs), and Charity. On one occasion, it was combined with the
Office of Foreign Affairs. Its first predecessor was the
Ministry of Public Instruction, Charity, and Ecclesiastical Affairs (), created on February 4, 1837, during the administration of
Andrés de Santa Cruz, president of the
Peru–Bolivian Confederation. This office was the fourth ministry, along with the three traditional ministries founded in 1822: Government and Foreign Affairs,
War and Navy, and
Economy. The following day, February 5, 1837, the priest Dr. was appointed the first Minister of Public Instruction. After the
fall of the Confederation and the beginning of the
Restoration period in 1839, this ministry was restored, albeit briefly. After the
anarchy that broke out in 1842, a General Ministry was established; once constitutionality was restored in 1845, the various branches of government were reorganised. In 1852, the
Ministry of Justice, Ecclesiastical Affairs, Education, and Charity () was created, whose first head was the cleric Bartolomé Herrera, a conservative ideologue. From 1855 to 1856, the branch of Public Education was merged with the Foreign Office, thus functioning as the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Public Education (). By law of November 17, 1856, issued under the provisional government of
Ramón Castilla, the
Ministry of Justice, Education, and Charity () was created. An amendment to this law in 1862 included this ministry in the branch of worship. The
Ministry of Justice, Worship, Charity, and Public Instruction () was thus established. In 1896, it ceased to include the branch of charity and was renamed the
Ministry of Justice, Worship, and Education (). On September 12, 1935, Law No. 8124, passed during the administration of General
Óscar R. Benavides, created the
Ministry of Public Education (), which was thus definitively separated from the Ministry of Justice and Worship. The first to hold the title of Minister of Public Education was General
Ernesto Montagne Markholz (1935-1939). In 1965, it was renamed to its current anem, and in 2007 its acronym changed from
MED to
MINEDU.
Headquarters From 1956 until the mid-1990s, its main headquarters were in the
Javier Alzamora Valdez Building, a skyscraper located in the
historic centre of Lima. In the mid-90s, it moved to a new headquarters where the
Institute for Research and Development of Education (INIDE) operated, located in the
San Borja District until 2011, when a new building was inaugurated to the north of the San Borja District, next to the
Museum of the Nation. Previously, at the end of the 2000s, some offices moved to the Administrative Complex of the Public Fisheries Sector to later move to the new headquarters in the form of stacked books. Finally, all the administrative areas of the ministry were transferred to the new headquarters where the ministry works to this day. ==Organisation==