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Colombia Historical Background
Until well after the achievement of independence early
in the
nineteenth century, the Roman Catholic Church remained the
principal authority in the sphere of education. The first
schools
were established by the church during the sixteenth
century, and in
the seventeenth century the sons of Spanish settlers
received
schooling in the first seminaries. Two universities were
founded by
the church before 1700, and, although the eighteenth
century saw
the emergence of some secular influence in education, an
effort to
found a public university was abandoned because of
clerical
opposition.
After the achievement of independence, the government's
control
over the school system increased progressively, and
ever-larger
numbers of students attended public schools. Nevertheless,
the
traditionally dominant role played by the church in
education
profoundly influenced the role played by education in
society and
probably contributed to a reluctance to change educational
institutions. Observers of Colombian education repeatedly
pointed
out that far from furthering social mobility, the system
reinforced
social stratification.
Primary education served as an instrument of mobility
to some
extent because it raised the level of literacy and thus
enabled
many people to enter the mainstream of national life. In
urban
localities, it also enabled workers to find better-paying
jobs and
thus to raise their standard of living, if not their
social status.
In the countryside, however, schooling was of little
value. In
general, a vicious circle existed in which a low
technological
level in agriculture and a low educational level mutually
reinforced each other.
In the past, education above the primary level
perpetuated the
class system because of the near absence of schools of any
kind in
rural localities, the unavailability of enough secondary
schools to
accommodate many of the qualified applicants, and the
disproportionate acceptance of students from the more
prosperous
upper-class families. In addition, above the primary
level, tuition
was charged in public as well as in private schools. This
cost,
plus the cost of books, supplies, and school uniforms,
placed
secondary schooling beyond the means of most working-class
families. Rural and small-city parents also had to bear
the
frequently prohibitive costs of transportation and room
and board.
Private secondary education prospered through its ability
to cater
to the needs of the elite. The Ministry of Education in a
1966
report criticized the secondary schools for accentuating
social
differences rather than encouraging vertical social
mobility. The
children of the poor were unable to enter the best schools
offering
an academic education, and the few secondary agricultural
and other
vocational schools available to them tended to discourage
upward
mobility. The ministry's report added that for most
students the
principal reason for completing secondary or higher
studies was the
social status conferred.
In Colombia, as in most other Latin American countries,
a
distinction was drawn between the academic and the
vocational
secondary school, and working-class as well as elite
families much
preferred the former. The distinction was so sharp that,
although
it was possible in some instances for vocational graduates
to go on
to universities, the term secondary was customarily
applied
only to the academic schools. The faster growth of the
already much
larger academic school enrollment during the 1960s and
1970s
reflected a continued disregard for manual labor and a
continued
tendency to attach little social value even to the highest
of
manual skills. The largest vocational enrollments were in
the
commercial institutions teaching white-collar skills.
Until after World War II, a university education was
the
exclusive province of the country's elite. But after many
new
universities were established and their enrollment growth
exceeded
that at other levels of education, the universities lost
something
of their exclusive character.
Data as of December 1988
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