This paper examines the organization, major functions, and general characteristics of Peruvian teacher education programs, as well as some recent attempts to effect qualitative changes in these and in teacher inservice education programs, which point the way to a more rational and modern normal-school system. The first normal schools, established in the 1820's, continued the social divisions of the colonial period, and true public education did not develop until after 1850. Teachers were prepared in convents and religious institutions until the government took control of education in the 1930's. The urban and rural poor received little or no education until after 1950. The existing teacher education programs are uneven in quality, conservative, and concerned with the transmittal of a fixed body of knowledge. Many of the students in the 152 schools are motivated by a desire for status and titles rather than a desire to teach. Current reform programs seek to change the normal school curriculum from 3 to 4 years, to use a new process for the systematic, objective evaluation of student performance, to assign semester units of credit to all courses, and to close marginal, substandard institutions. Teams from UNESCO and Teachers College, Columbia University, are helping to implement these reforms. Difficulties have also arisen in finding the money to provide higher salaries promised under salary legislation (the 15215 law). (MBM)