Extra year for Colombia’s school children?
A report published last week by two major international institutions advised the Colombian government to introduce an extra year of compulsory schooling into its education system. The paper compiled by the OECD and the World Bank and reviewed the tertiary education sector, making a number of recommendations that they believe will systematically improve the education system as a whole in Colombia.
It highlighted the lack of college-readiness of many Colombian students leaving school and suggested that twelfth year of schooling or even an optional “bridging year” between school and university would help remedy this issue.
The proposal was greeted with enthusiasm from Colombia Minister of Education Maria Fernanda Campo, who said that they were considering at which stage the extra year should be added. The plan was also backed by a number of teachers in private schools in Colombia that currently use systems found in other countries.
Whether the Colombian government has the financial resources to carry this out remains to be seen though. Speaking in El Espectador, the President of the Association of Educators in Bogota, William Agudelo, urged caution before rushing into implementing the proposal, saying that many schools did not have the physical capacity to accommodate students for the extra year. He said that it would create a risk of schools denying access to new students because of lack of space, adding that many students need to leave school at an earlier age in order to earn money.
Among a number of other proposals put forward by the report includes need to increase the transparency and improve the trust in the higher education admissions system; to tackle the disparity between regions in the levels of student enrolment in tertiary education; to simplify the number of different degree types on offer in higher education institutions; and to increase the range of repayment options for students for student loans.
Improving the standard of and access to education, particularly at the secondary and tertiary stages, so as to improve the skills and knowledge of young people entering the economy is imperative to Colombia’s economic interests at this time as it looks to take advantage of the settling security situation in the country and the opportunities this brings.
