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Colombia Secondary and University Education
Secondary education, concentrated in the principal
urban areas,
evolved much as had primary education in urban areas but
remained
virtually nonexistent in the countryside. Increases in
coverage at
the secondary level occurred in response to increased
demand, but
40 percent of all secondary enrollment and 60 percent of
higher
education still were absorbed by the private sector.
Inefficiency and low quality were also major problems
in
Colombia's secondary schools, although to a lesser degree
than at
the primary level. At the secondary-school level, 55
percent of all
teachers had completed university studies, students used
modern
learning aids in class, and teaching materials of high
quality were
generally available.
The technical education sector, except for the
so-called
commercial branch, was relatively small and expensive in
Colombia.
Seventy-six percent of students were enrolled in regular
academic
schools. Another 12 percent were enrolled in commercial
schools.
Since 1970 the National Institutes of Diversified
Intermediate
Education (Institutos Nacionales de Educación Media
Diversificada--
INEM) have taken on increasing importance, as has the
National
Apprenticeship Service (Servicio Nacional de
Aprendizaje--Sena),
which was charged with financial responsibility for the
formal
technical schools, has received significant backing from
both the
public and private sectors, and has proved quite
successful. In
1987 some 15 percent of the urban work force was estimated
to have
attended Sena counseling. The technical education sector
also
included normal schools, which were charged with preparing
primaryschool teachers, but these schools were heavily criticized
for
inflexible, irrelevant curriculum and poor quality.
Higher education had expanded more than the other two
levels of
the system. This expansion was especially true in private
institutions. There were few reliable data on the quality
of higher
education except in those universities that maintained
high
entrance requirements. Most of these were concentrated in
Bogotá
and a few other principal cities. Nonetheless, observers
agreed
that the rapid expansion of higher education had in
general
occurred at the expense of quality. It was common to find
professors working part time in several institutions and
students
attending only night courses. In most universities, there
was a
notable imbalance between the development needs of the
country and
the areas of specialization offered and a virtual absence
of
scientific and technological research. The frequent
suspension of
classes as a result of student strikes was a constant
problem until
early in the 1980s, when strike activity dropped
substantially in
most universities. In the 1970s, however, the best public
universities were closed at least half the time because of
student
strikes.
Various studies of the education system in Colombia
have
demonstrated its highly stratified character. A
disproportionate
number of secondary-school students came from the
upper-income
brackets, and higher education further amplified this
socioeconomic
bias, even though all public universities and many private
ones had
adopted admission requirements based solely on academic
performance. The bias in favor of higher-income students
was
slightly higher in private than in public institutions.
Data as of December 1988
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