Capital -- Bogotá Population -- 43,593,035 Major Languages -- Spanish, the official language, is both written and oral. Major Religion -- Roman Catholic Type of Government -- Republic Main Exports -- Petroleum, coffee, coal, clothes, bananas Definition of Literacy -- age 15 and over can read and write. Literacy rate -- total: 92.5%, female: 92.6%, male: 92.5%, in rural areas: 67% Overview of Education -- The school year in Colombia runs from February to November in the capital, and from August to June in various other cities. Total expenditure on education -- 4.4% of GNP in 2001. Script/Alphabet used -- Latin alphabet, read from left to right. Occupational distribution -- agriculture: 22.7%, industry: 18.7%, services: 37.7% Primary School (Educación Básica Primaria): Length: 5 years Age level: 6 - 10 years old General Secondary School (Básica Secundaria): Length: 4 years Age level: 11 -14 years old Public or private schools and compulsory or optional -- Education is compulsory and free from the ages of six until twelve. Most private schools are religiously affiliated, often with the Roman Catholic Church. School Attendance -- 80% overall Percent Education level achieved -- 84% of females and 83% of males enroll in primary school; 58% of females and 52% of males enroll in secondary school; 27% of the population enters higher education Post-Secondary Opportunities -- Of every 100 children who begin elementary school, only half finish high school. Pupil to teacher ratio -- in primary schools, 26:1; in secondary schools, 19:2 Teacher Qualifications -- There aren’t explicit differences between the sexes but most of the elementary school teachers are women. In high school, the proportion of female to male teachers is 2:1, but different subjects have different gender distributions; it is more common for math and physics professors to be men, while biology and chemistry are more commonly taught by women. Languages and humanities are more equally distributed and the majority of physical education teachers are male. In the state capitals, most teachers have university training in education; they have gone through education programs with an emphasis in sciences. Humanities and language teachers may or may not have done teacher training. In small cities and towns, teachers often are “normalistas,”which means they have a high school diploma with a pedagogical emphasis. This demonstrates an asymmetry in the quality of education between cities and rural areas. There is also a difference in salary according to the grade the teacher has completed. If they work for the state, there is a ranking they have to attain to move on to a tenured position with benefits similar to those of a teacher working in the public schools in United States. Languages in School -- Primarily Spanish; English instruction is provided from elementary to high school. There are private schools that offer bilingual curricula in French and Spanish or English and Spanish. These schools are not affordable for everyone. Method of instruction and Subjects/Curriculum -- Access to quality audio-visual materials is limited. Internet or computer resources are rarely used by students and teachers. The focus of instruction is teaching practical skills, even though limited resources don’t permit improvement of the quality of education in most institutions. The grading system certifies student proficiency in a variety of cognitive or practical skill areas, regardless of the grade or written percentage the student received in individual endeavors. This method of measuring student achievement, combined with limited resources in the majority of schools, has significantly limited the competitive edge of the new generation of Colombians. Physical Environment -- Colombia is a very heterogeneous country; there are schools that have practically no classrooms and schools with excellent materials and high quality teaching. The majority of the Colombian population is urban. However, there is considerable inequality in the quality of education and the resources available to students, depending on their families’ social and economic status. The best high schools are at the level of competitive international high schools while the worst are at ground level and teachers manage classrooms with all of the grade levels – elementary and secondary – combined. Culture of classroom including discipline -- Physical punishment of students is not condoned (at least in urban areas). Bullying and psychological abuse by professors is relatively frequent, however students have the right to defend their rights using various forms of legal and constitutional means. Under the law, students have a right to education, equality and personal development. Commonly students will use these specifications to protect their rights. From the teacher’s point of view, there are very ways to discipline students, partly because it is difficult to expel a student for behavior problems. At the same time, the system of automatic promotion makes for relaxed academic standards; it is not unusual for students to finish public high school with serious deficits in certain subject areas as well as poor behavior. Gender roles in classroom -- Deeply ingrained discrimination against women persists, though it has begun to decrease. Education reflects the deeply ingrained public behavior roles that differentiate between being a “lady” and a “gentleman”. These roles are firmly rooted in the “machista” culture of Latin America. Again, however, the cultural and geographic diversity of the country is extremely varied and sexism is less discernible in urban areas and more evident in small villages and rural areas. There is no explicit discrimination with regards to the education of women or men, or with regards to their access to post-secondary education. Exclusion is primarily caused by economic factors. Parent involvement/Parent Role in Education -- There is a growing push to involve parents in education, even though in many circumstances this is not effective. Generally, parents are very interested in education as a value and virtue, however parents may not have time or may not have had the education and thus are marginalized by the process of organizing around education. Many schools, especially in urban areas, include activities that require families to be involved, with the goal of involving them in their students’ development. Accommodations/special education -- There are specialized environments (special schools) for educating children with disabilities. Frequently, public schools accept these children, but there are no specific or specialized programs that meet their needs, and the participation of the handicapped student depends on the initiative of the teachers more than on an explicit education plan. Educational barriers -- The primary hurdle for access to education is lack of economic resources, either in a particular area or in an individual family. In the first case, this means limited access to schools or to specialized teachers in some schools. In the second case, where a family can’t afford the available education, there have been programs established to make public education very cheap, inclusive and free. And there is a process where students are financially supported for their studies – with about 12 dollars a month – that also provides them with breakfast and lunch; this happens, for example, in Bogotá. While this helps some students, many children and youth living in extreme poverty are obligated to work. Poverty in Colombia is a combination of problems brought about by the civil war that has been carried on for the past fifty years. It has produced subcultures in urban and rural areas where gang membership or military recruitment causes students to leave school early. In these conflict areas (urban and rural), teachers may be targeted as political actors in concert with one of the armed forces and assassination of teachers is not uncommon and tragically aggravates problems in schools. Poverty is also significantly intertwined with racism; education for Afro-Colombians and indigenous people is not actively limited, but is significantly worse as a result of the poverty that disproportionately affects these groups. There are public and private initiatives to start schools for these ethnic groups in order to conserve their cultural and linguistic diversity. Gender access -- It depends on the area, but in general there is no gender discrimination. Socio-political influences -- The armed conflict and drug trafficking in addition to governmental corruption has lead to the politicization of school leadership in areas where armed groups have significant influence. This has increased the inequality between rich and poor and quality education is increasingly becoming a privilege limited to a small percentage of the population with the highest income (legal or illegal). After Brazil, Colombia has the second highest level of inequality in Latin America. The official statistics show improvement with regard to financial allotments to education, but indicators of quality show progressive decline in students’ educational achievement. The investment in education in Colombia is not high, partly because the resources that go towards the armed conflict take away from funding the social sector. Barely 0.6% of the GDP is invested in science and technology and only about 2 points of the GDP go to education. Private education goes a long way towards meeting the educational needs of the Colombian people at all socio-economic levels. In Colombia, 44.73% of registered preschool children go to private schools. Additionally, 19.09% of primary school students and 35.01% of secondary school students attend private schools. In large cities like Santa Fé de Bogotá, private enrollment is as high as 50%. Given the restrictions on public education, private education has become an important actor in the educational scene. It has essentially become a partner in the public politics attempting to increase and broaden the coverage of educational services. Suarez Martinez, Carlos Fernando, Professor of Biology and native of Colombia Columbian flag courtesy of 4 International Flags Last revised 12 May 2008 National Overview: Columbia
School Structure
Culture of Classroom
Access to Education
Progress
Personal Interviews
Beatriz Hadler
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