The Right to Education in Colombia

By Franmezagomez

  • Reform and Secularization of Education - 1936

    ♦Constitutional reform established freedom of education.
    ♦It promoted the separation between Church and State in education.
    ♦However, the Catholic Church maintained strong influence until the late 1980s.
  • Period: to

    Expansion of the Educational System

    ♦Increase in student enrollment, number of schools (especially public ones), and teachers.
    ♦Improvement in the teacher–student ratio.
    ♦Context of population growth, urbanization, and industrialization.
  • Period: to

    Development Missions in Education

    ♦International missions such as those led by Lauchlin Currie and Louis-Joseph Lebret.
    ♦Educational planning was strengthened.

  • International Human Rights Commitments

    ♦Colombia signed international agreements strengthening the protection of social and civil rights.
  • Period: to

    Focus on Coverage and Quantitative Growth

    ♦Priority was given to increasing the number of students, teachers, and schools.
    ♦State planning was strengthened to respond to educational demand.
  • Period: to

    Pedagogical Movement

    ♦The Federación Colombiana de Educadores promoted a national movement to analyze educational policies and transform the system.
  • Period: to

    Movement for a Constituent Assembly

    ♦A movement emerged calling for a new Constitution amid political crisis and violence.

  • New Constitution and Education as a Right

    ♦Promulgation of the Constitución Política de Colombia de 1991.
    ♦Education was strengthened as a fundamental right.

  • Commitment to the Abolition of the Death Penalty

    ♦Colombia ratified the Second Optional Protocol aimed at abolishing the death penalty.