Colombia

As a result of increased school enrollment, nearly 92 percent of the adults in Colombia over age 15 had at least the basic ability to read and to write in the year 2000. The increases in education were significant. In 1935, enrollment at the elementary school level reached about 550,000, while in 1980, that number had risen to nearly 4,200,000. A dramatic increase took place at the secondary level as well, although it was not as far reaching as the elementary increase. In 1935, enrollment in high schools totaled 45,670 students; by 1980, the number had grown to 1,824,000 (Hanson).

In 1999, the preschool enrollment for private and public schools in urban and rural areas totaled 1,034,182 students. This included 522,209 boys and 511,973 girls. In elementary schools, total enrollment reached 5,162, 260 students, including 2,632,187 boys and 2,530,073 girls. The total high school enrollment reached 3,594,083 students, including 1,734,012 boys and 1,860,071 girls. These figures imply that females were somewhat more likely to attend high school than boys.

Academic Year: In general, the academic structure of the educational system in Colombia remains relatively constant. Preschool or kindergarten is usually in private hands. A child may enter at age four and continue through age six. Primary schooling in Columbia begins with five years of elementary education followed by four years of secondary education. After this basic cycle, students proceed to a second level of secondary education, lasting two years. Generally, these six years of secondary education appear together. Upon finishing that level, the students may pass on to some kind of technical training or commercial studies, or they can attend university and eventually pursue graduate studies (Low-Maus; Wellington).

The National Ministry of Education offers two options for the school calendar. One option begins in February, offers a four-week vacation in June and July, and finishes in November. The second option begins in September, offers a four-week vacation in December, and finishes in June. Both systems offer 198 days of school attendance (Wellington).

Language of Instruction: Some schools offer bilingual opportunities and employ languages like French, German, or English for instruction. However, these are expensive, private academies serving the students of prosperous families. In general, Spanish is used in most schools, especially those in those rural areas where Spanish is the dominant language. In areas of the country where an indigenous language dominates, the law requires that schools offer bilingual programs using the native languages (Parra).

Grading System: In most high schools, grades are awarded on a scale extending from 1 to 10. This system was adopted in 1973, replacing a system that used a scale of one to five. However, universities retained the shorter system. In university courses, students take final exams that count for twenty percent of the grade. These tests are two hours long and the students take one per day for five days (Wellington).

Religious Schools: The distribution of enrollment between public schools and private schools, most of which are Catholic, illustrates that, while private elementary schools have become more popular, public high schools have also increased in popularity. In 1935, about 93 percent of the elementary age students attended public schools. However, at the high school level, about 46 percent attended public schools. In 1980, the proportion of students attending public elementary schools dropped to 85 percent, while the proportion of high school students attending public schools increased to about 56 percent (Hanson).

In general, schools do not buy textbooks. Instead, the parents must purchase school supplies after schoolteachers or administrators indicate which books they should buy from local sources. These books may come from publishers in Colombia or from foreign firms. Usually, when a school adopts a textbook, it uses the book for three years. For many years, the Instituto Colombiano de Pedagogía (ICOLPE) of the Ministry of Education developed primers, called cartillas, and used five of the primers per subject to enhance elementary school teachers' pedagogical skills and to provide materials and suggestions to facilitate their daily work. Distributed without charge, the cartillas were well received. A less successful effort was the Ministry's attempt to develop and publish textbooks that followed appropriate educational objectives for each subject (Londoño).

Curriculum—Development: Colombia has long sought to turn the secondary curriculum toward practical or vocational education. After the civil war of 1839, President Pedro Alcántara Herrán, and his secretary of the interior, Mariano Ospina Rodríguez, introduced new methods of instruction and pedagogical principles into the secondary schools. For example, they removed the controversial authors from the secondary curriculum that Santander had introduced in the 1830s, reduced the extent of theoretical studies, and increased studies that had more practical applications, such as natural science (Bushnell; Low-Maus).

From 1948 to 1970, the Ministry tried to spread vocational, technical, and agricultural schools throughout the country. Despite these efforts, in 1977, more than 70 percent of the high school students enrolled in academic programs. Unfortunately, very few of these students went on to any higher education, often leaving school unprepared to earn a living (Hanson 1986). Efforts were made to increase vocational education, but most secondary school students enrolled in academic programs. When colleges and universities opened new programs to meet the growing number of academic students, the programs were often poor quality.