Education as a State Policy in Colombia

Posted on Sep 13, 2024 in Social sciences

Ensuring the Right to Education

The State must ensure full compliance with the right to education under equitable conditions for all people. It must also ensure their permanence in the education system from early childhood to its articulation with higher education. Education, in its social function, recognizes students as human beings and active subjects of rights. It attends to the specific local, regional, national, and international contexts. Education should contribute to:

The transformation of social, political, and economic life
The achievement of peace
Overcoming poverty and exclusion
Rebuilding the social fabric
Promoting democratic values
The formation of free, supportive, and self-reliant citizens

Strengthening Public Education

Public education must be strengthened at all levels as a priority in national agendas and territorial development plans. Investment from local, departmental, and national institutions is necessary to ensure all conditions of availability, access, retention, and quality in terms of equality, equity, and inclusion.

State Responsibilities

The Colombian State, through sustained public policies, must ensure the allocation, investment management, and adequate, sufficient, and progressive resources for education. It must also strengthen decentralization, regional autonomy, and educational management based on criteria of effectiveness, efficiency, transparency, quality, and good governance.

Promoting Culture, Research, and Innovation

Education as a State policy should materialize in policies, plans, programs, projects, and activities that promote culture, research, innovation, knowledge, science, technology, and art. This contributes to human development and sustainable development through the expansion of opportunities for the advancement of individuals, communities, regions, and the nation.

Modernizing Curricula

It is essential to promote the modernization of curricula, joint school levels, and core functions of education and research. Innovation and the establishment of content, practices, and assessments that promote learning and the social construction of knowledge are also crucial. These should be aligned with the stages of development, expectations, and individual and collective needs of students, within their context and the world today.

The Role of Teachers

The Colombian education system must have its foundation in pedagogy and be based on respect and social recognition of the work of teachers as essential subjects for the quality of the educational process. The State guarantees teachers a decent living for their professional, personal, and ethical development.

Education for Ethnic and Cultural Diversity

Under the Political Constitution of Colombia and regulations governing special education, education for ethnic and cultural diversity must be constructed in consultation with different ethnic groups. This requires an education system that integrates different models, is responsive to their views and peculiarities, and articulates a common purpose for the nation.

Addressing the Needs of Victims of Armed Conflict

The education system must be designed with pedagogical approaches and create material, psychosocial, and safety conditions to meet the educational needs of all victims of armed conflict and their communities.

Ensuring Inclusivity

The education system must ensure that girls, boys, teenagers, and adults respect diversity of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, exceptionality, age, creed, displacement, imprisonment, resettlement, and social disengagement. It must also create conditions for special attention to populations that need it.