Menu
Expat.com

The Colombian Educational System

Last activity 31 May 2017 by khezza

Post new topic

khezza

Hello, my name is Krissie.
I am moving from Norway to Colombia later this year on my own, and since I am 16, I'm obviously going to attend secondary school, where I decided on choosing a public one instead of an international school.
What I was wondering is if anyone can give a clearer idea on how the Colombian school system works? I have understood it is rather similar to how it is in the Netherlands, but then every site has told me differently about what type of subjects I should expect to have, and wheter or not they wear school uniforms all the way through upper secondary school.
If you feel like you can give a confused teenager a better view of things, I would be very pleased.

Much love,
Krissie

OsageArcher

Hi Krissie,

School uniforms are often required in private, religious-backed schools which are almost all Catholic, and in them the sexes are often segregated to the point where it may be a whole separate school or at least a separate campus for each sex.

Here are several links in Spanish that may help:

http://www.mineducacion.gov.co/1759/w3- … 33839.htmlhttps://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistema_e … e_Colombia

Here are several links discussing the differences between public and private education in Colombia:

http://www.taringa.net/post/apuntes-y-m … tajas.htmlhttp://www.colombiaaprende.edu.co/html/ … 18255.htmlhttp://marysolmosquera.blogspot.com/

In a public school I think the instruction will be all in Spanish so hopefully you have at least an intermediate command of the language - otherwise you may find yourself quickly falling behind.

Do you know where in Colombia you will attend, and have you narrowed down your choices of school?

khezza

Thank you!
I won't find out precisely where untill late May or early June, but after that everything is going to be sorted out very quickly.
And I am prepared to have to work a lot with school to not end up falling behind everyone else, but I definitely have the motivation. The reason I wanted a public institution was so I would have some good excuse to really work hard to learn the language, and I think it will all work out fine :D
Xx

Frank stuff

If you want the truth or the lie !!
The truth is the rich people send there kids to privet schools with 6-8 students

The 80% of the poor people go to public schools with 35-45 students that come from homes with no father and much child abuse and drugs and alcohol.. You can read COLOMBIA REPORTS and get the real news or just ask a Columbia person that has gone to a public school

hope you make a good Decision because every decision you make I your life will have a consequence

Enjoy ✌️✌✌🎶🎶🎶

nubiaedith

Dear Krissie:

The educational system in Colombia is complex. You can go to a public school (where it is now improving in his quality) or to go to the private school (which everybody has the notion, it is the best system).  Some school have uniforms, others don't. Public schools, usually have uniforms, but they are not expensive nor the tuition for the year. Some public schools have transportation, others don't.

The best schools, are always private and they are expensive. However, the quality of the educational system is good. Due to the variety of schools, the educational curriculums differ too. Some of them are focused on the freedom and the own expression of the student, others have a strict curriculum to follow. Some curriculums are more flexible than others. But any school you go to, can help you and allow you for any career you want to do in the future if in Colombia. The system is competitive and students friendly and open to receive new foreigner students.

Congratulations for taking the risk of this life experience and embracing new cultures as the Colombia culture, which  is lovely!


Cheers. keep safe.

Nubia.

Frank stuff

Fact ➡️The average amount of kids in a public school in Colombia is 35-45 kids and one teacher ... If the teacher does not come to school then the kids do not have a boo that day ...  Fact ➡️85% of the kids in a public school do not know who there father is ..  Fact ➡️ Ever hour two kids are sexully abuse in Colombia... Fact ➡️ One teacher an not teach 45 kids that come from homes with no father and no disaplin because ther mother needs to work 10 hours every day five or six days every week and she is to tired to teach , or do anything.. Fact ➡️ most kids are left alone after school and there is no person to care for them ... Fact Most kids eat bad food , drink sugar water , fried food to poison there body and minds ... Poor are just victims of the adults that should care for them !!! But how can a child care for a child 😰😰 84% of the girls that get pregnant are age 20 and under .... If you want to know the truth just look for it and you will be set free from the lie
Thank you ✌️✌

khezza

nubiaedith wrote:

Dear Krissie:

The educational system in Colombia is complex. You can go to a public school (where it is now improving in his quality) or to go to the private school (which everybody has the notion, it is the best system).  Some school have uniforms, others don't. Public schools, usually have uniforms, but they are not expensive nor the tuition for the year. Some public schools have transportation, others don't.

The best schools, are always private and they are expensive. However, the quality of the educational system is good. Due to the variety of schools, the educational curriculums differ too. Some of them are focused on the freedom and the own expression of the student, others have a strict curriculum to follow. Some curriculums are more flexible than others. But any school you go to, can help you and allow you for any career you want to do in the future if in Colombia. The system is competitive and students friendly and open to receive new foreigner students.

Congratulations for taking the risk of this life experience and embracing new cultures as the Colombia culture, which  is lovely!


Cheers. keep safe.

Nubia.


thank you, this is really helpful! I cannot wait til my moving date!

majowe

We get it Francis. Go take a nap. ;)
MW

ch33br0h

I'm with Frank on this one....
Coming from Norway, I believe its safe to assume you are not coming from a poor family.  (or at least -poor in Colombia standards).
Probably safe to assume that you may also be relocating with family help and that family is going to want you to live in an area with a high quality/standard of life because they may not want to downgrade from the life in Norway.

At 16 years of age can you even leave Norway and enter Colombia with out some serious parental consent? Either way, one can only imagine that if you fly alone someone that your family knows will be at the airport to pick you up and take you "home"

The high quality private school will probably be much closer to your new "home", the kids your age that live near you, will all be in that private school.

I admire your willingness to experience the public schools, but at the end of the day - its not worth it.

Mark Leon

Krissie

I am retired NASA and my Colombian Wife is CEO of Global Foundation of Art, Science and Technology in Medellin, Colombia.  We work a lot with many of the schools across the major cities from rural to urban and from rich to poor.  Included are two URLs to direct you to pdf’s which will tell you what you are up against.  We use this data a lot for benchmarking and targeting middle school girls on pathways to engineering. 

My bottom line suggestion is get into a private school if you can.  There are many reasons.  The top two is that they teach classes in English and there is ample opportunity to learn Spanish if you don’t already speak it.  It will be a much swifter integration to make new friends with more educated families.  Also the private schools go to grade 12 whereas most public schools stop at grade 11. 

The statistics in the first document are surprisingly low when compared to places like Norway.  Nevertheless, my wife and I work with all walks of life. 
Colombia is a beautiful country with great culture and spirit! Best of luck to you. 

Mark Leon

http://www.epdc.org/sites/default/files … lombia.pdfhttp://www.oecd.org/edu/school/Educatio … lights.pdf

khezza

Well, being from Norway, I also wanted to live somewhere different from where I've been brought up, which is one reason for why I moved to the exact place I chose to move to.

The reason I was able to move at that age, was because I had a contact person in the country - which minors alone abroad are required to have till they turn 18 - and because my parents signed papers that meant they passed the responsibility of me to my contact person. It's a lot easier to fix than one might think, just a lot of boring paperwork.

I am well aware of the difference of public and private schools now, as it is almost a year since I moved now, however the quality wasn't my main concern when I picked my school. I chose one close to my flat, which was a public one that happened to be one of the shittiest academically since no one really paid any attention, but I learned to steak more fluently since everyone was just chatting around anyway. About the academics, I didn't actually need them as I've taken early secondary school graduation so I can begin university earlier, which I've now started.

I don't regret choosing public school, despite agreeing with you that it truly wasn't worth it, considering it was more or less getting up early, sitting at a hard chair for the whole morning while talking rubbish and then leaving.
Thank you, even though it was a bit late. Xx

Articles to help you in your expat project in Bogota

All of Bogota's guide articles