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ColombiaFrom Researching Virtual Initiatives in EducationOriginal Re.ViCa entry by Paul Bacsich assisted by Gertjan and with desk research by Iris Velasquez Noguera. Updated for VISCED by Giles Pepler of Sero For entities in Colombia see Category:Colombia
Partners and experts in ColombiaNone. However, Paul Bacsich spoke at the Colombia Aprende conference in Bogota in 2005.
Colombia in a nutshell(sourced from Wikipedia) Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia (Spanish: República de Colombia), is a country in northwestern South America. Colombia is bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Atlantic Ocean, through the Caribbean Sea; to the north-west by Panama; and to the west by the Pacific Ocean. Colombia also shares maritime borders with Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.  Colombia is the 26th largest nation in the world and the fourth largest in South America (after Brazil, Argentina, and Peru), with an area more than twice that of France. It also has the 29th largest population in the world and the second largest in South America, after Brazil. Colombia has the third largest Spanish-speaking population in the world after Mexico and Spain. The word "Colombia" comes from the name of Christopher Columbus (Spanish: Cristóbal Colón, Italian:Cristoforo Colombo). It was conceived by the revolutionary Francisco de Miranda as a reference to all the New World, especially to those territories and colonies under Spanish and Portuguese rule. The name was then adopted by the Republic of Colombia of 1819 formed out of the territories of the old Viceroyalty of New Granada (modern day Colombia, Panama, Venezuela and Ecuador). In 1830, when Venezuela and Ecuador separated, the Cundinamarca region that remained became a new country, the Republic of New Granada. In 1858 New Granada officially changed its name to the Granadine Confederation, then in 1863 the United States of Colombia, before finally adopting its present name — the Republic of Colombia — in 1886. The Government of Colombia takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic as established in the Colombian Constitution of 1991. The Colombian government is divided into three branches of power; the executive, legislative and judicial with special control institutions and electoral institutions. The President of Colombia is the highest representative of the executive branch of government in Colombia and is also the head of state and head of government with supreme administrative authority, followed by the Vice President and the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Colombia. At a provincial level the executive is managed by department governors, municipal mayors at municipal level and local administrators for smaller administrative subdivisions such as corregidor for corregimientos. The legislative branch of government in Colombia is represented by the National Congress of Colombia which is formed by an upper house the Senate and the Chamber of Representatives. At a provincial level the legislative branch is represented by department assemblies and a municipal level with municipal councils. Both the legislative and executive branches share most of the government power while the judicial branch of Colombia functions as an independent body from the other two branches which are vested with a shared power. The judicial branch under a adversarial system is represented by the Supreme Court of Justice which is the highest entity in this branch but shared in responsibility with the Council of State, Constitutional Court and the Superior Council of the Judicature which also have jurisdictional and regional courts. Colombia is divided into 32 departments and one capital district which is treated as a department. There are in total 10 districts assigned to cities in Colombia including Bogotá, Barranquilla, Cartagena, Santa Marta, Tunja, Cúcuta, Popayán, Buenaventura, Tumaco and Turbo. Colombia is also subdivided into some municipalities which form departments, each with a municipal seat capital city assigned. Colombia is also subdivided into corregimientos which form municipalities. Each department has a local government which is headed by a department governor and its own department assembly elected for a period of four years in a regional election. Each municipality also headed by a municipal mayor and a municipal council. And for corregimientos there will be an elected corregidor or local leader. Some departments have also local administrative regional subdivisions such as the departments of Antioquia and Cundinamarca, where towns have a large concentration of population and municipalities are near each other. In the case of some department where the population is still scarce and there are security problems such as in eastern Colombian departments of Amazonas, Vaupés and Vichada there special administrative definitions for territories, some are considered Department corregimientos, which are a hybrid between a corregimiento and a municipality. The difference besides the population is also subject to a cut in the assigned budget. Colombia's economy is fueled by abundant natural resources, a highly literate population and relatively high-valued currency. After experiencing decades of steady growth (average GDP growth exceeded 4% in the 1970-1998 period), Colombia experienced a recession in 1999 (the first full year of negative growth since 1929), and the recovery from that recession was long and painful. Colombia's economy suffers from weak domestic and foreign demand, austere government budgets, and serious internal armed conflicts. With approximately 43.6 million people in 2006, Colombia is the third-most populous country in Latin America, after Brazil and Mexico. Movement from rural to urban areas was very heavy in the mid-twentieth century, but has since tapered off. The urban population increased from 31% of the total population in 1938, to 57% in 1951 and about 70% by 1990. Currently the figure is about 77%. Thirty cities have a population of 100,000 or more. The nine eastern lowlands departments, constituting about 54% of Colombia's area, have less than 3% of the population and a density of less than one person per square kilometer (two persons per sq mi.). Colombia's total population in 2015 is projected to be more than 52 million. The country has a diverse population that reflects its colourful history and the peoples that have populated here from ancient times to the present. The historic amalgam of the different main groups forms the basics of Colombia's current demographics: European immigrants, Indigenous Natives, Africans, Asians, Middle Easterners and other recent immigrants. Many of the indigenous peoples were absorbed into the mestizo population, but the remaining 700,000 currently represent over eighty-five distinct cultures.
Education in ColombiaThe Colombian Ministry of Education has overall responsibility for education in Colombia. Its remit includes:
Day-to-day management and direction of many key functions is devolved to a number of major government agencies - e.g. quality assurance of schools and colleges is devolved to ICFES. Note that although HEIs are largely independent of the state, the Ministry has the responsibility for developing policies to promote higher education and leading QA in the university sector.
The Colombian education system is made up of: early childhood education, preschool education, basic education (primary - 5 grades - and secondary - 4 grades), middle school (upper secondary, with two grades which culminate in the Bachiller (Bachelor's degree) and higher education. Approximately 80 percent of Colombian children enter school, but they usually join a preschool academy until age 6 and then go to school. The school year can extend from February to November or from August to June in the capital city while in many other cities it extends from August to June. The medium of education is Spanish. Over 94% of the entire population over 15 years of age can read and write, and this number has continued to increase throughout recent years. However, literacy rates are still below 70% in some rural areas. Primary education (educación primaria) lasts 5 years for children between 6 and 11+ years of age. Secondary education (educación media) lasts 6 years, with the first 3 compulsory, making a total of 8 years of compulsory education. Some private secondary schools provide an additional seventh year of education. Primary completion rates are 97% and the secondary enrolment rate is 56.5%. There are just under 1 million tertiary enrolments - 23.3% of population. In many rural areas, teachers are poorly qualified, and only five years of primary school are offered. Only 50% of schools are state schools; private institutions cover the other 50% and most technical and university education. Education spending (2008) is 5.2% of GDP and 15.6% of total government expenditure - this compares with 4.4% of GDP in 2001 and 2.5% percent at the end of the 1980s. Although the proportion of GDP expenditure on education has continued to rise in the first decade of the twenty-first century, its proportion of total government expenditure has fallen from 19.7% in 1999. Sources: Colombian Ministry of Education and Nationmaster.com Schools in Colombia(partly sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Colombia) Formal education is composed of nursery school, primary school, secondary school and technical instruction and college education. Nursery schoolMost of the children under 5 years are provided with daycare and nursery school in "Hogares Comunitarios" (community homes) sponsored by the National Institute for Family Welfare (ICBF acronym in Spanish), where mothers from the community take care of their own children, as the children from the immediate neighborhood. When children of Colombia learn to read and write, they are usually transferred to the primary school. There are also a large number of private kindergarten facilities, but most of the time the high fees are too restrictive for the average family.
Primary schoolDue to insufficient supply of suitable institutions the public education system has adopted the "automatic promotion" as standard practice, meaning that the children are promoted to the next grade no matter the achievement of goals, with the aim of avoiding extra years of occupancy in schools.
Secondary schoolSecondary education is divided in basic secondary (grades 6th to 9th) and mid secondary (grades 10th and 11th). Net secondary enrollment in 2001 was 53.5 percent. School life expectancy in 2001 was 11.1 years. In order to access college or technical education, secondary school students must take the state test "Pruebas de estado" provided by Instituto Colombiano para el Fomento de la Educación Superior - ICFES.
Non profit organizations working to fill the education gap in ColombiaThere are hundreds of well-run non profits in Colombia that are helping to close the education gap. To support their efforts, the Colombian diaspora has begun to organize and channel resources to them from the United States. One of the largest examples is the Genesis Foundation. Other organizations like Colombia Progresa raise scholarships in the US to support the education of children in Colombia.
Further and Higher education in ColombiaHigher education is divided into undergraduate degrees and postgraduate degrees and is regulated by the 30th law of 1992. Most of the university degree courses are five years long. Technical education usually lasts 3 years. Post-graduate education includes masters degrees and PhD.
Universities in ColombiaColombia has 24 public universities. Universities in Bogota(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universities_of_Bogot%C3%A1) There are more than one hundred tertiary education institutions in Bogotá alone, but many of these are private colleges providing vocational training. The first university open in Bogotá was Universidad Santo Tomás, on July 13, 1580, just 41 years after the Hispanic foundation of the city. The Universidad Santo Tomás belong to the religious Dominican order. Another important university was opened on July 9, 1623 by the Jesuits with the name Universidad San Francisco Javier, which later on changed its name to Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. Its first facilities are part of the Museum of Colonial Art of Bogotá. In December 31, 1651 the School of Our Lady of Rosary was founded by Fray Cristóbal de Torres. It still works today in its foundational site. In 1867, the largest university of the country, the National University of Colombia is founded, consolidating Bogotá as the University Capital of Colombia. Bogotá's colleges and universities have a major impact on the city and region's economy. Not only are they major employers, but they also attract national and international students. The large pool of professionals they graduate bring industries to the city and the surrounding region, including highly needed technology industries. The city is Colombia's educational "Mecca"; it boasts more schools, colleges, and universities than any other city in Colombia.
Universities in the country(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_Colombia) This is a partial list of more than 50 Colombian universities:
Polytechnics in ColombiaNo specific information (see below for general information)>
Colleges in ColombiaThere are 32 Instituciónes Técnicas Laboral de Colombia (Technical colleges) providing "Education for Work and Human Development" - vocational education focusing on labour market competences. Their programmes include education and training provided by businesses to their employees. The Colombian government promotes this kind of education as an alternative for university education, which is not accessible for the majority. Leading examples of these organisations, which function in a similar way to FE colleges, include SENA; CESDE, ANDAP, INCAP. Education reformThe list of Ministry of Education functions describes a clear vision for promoting and developing education at all levels. There is an increasingly strong emphasis on the use of ICT. SchoolsPost-secondaryAdministration and financeThe list of Ministry of Education functions describes central government's role in administration and financial management of educational establishments. Much of this is devolved to provinces and municipalities and there is a strong move towards decentralisation. SchoolsPost-secondaryQuality assuranceICFES (Colombian Institute for Educational Evaluation) is the government department responsible for accreditation and monitoring of secondary schools. It offers educational assessment in all educational levels and supports the Ministry of National Education in the development and administration of state assessments and in systematic investigation about the factors that influence the quality of education, to provide useful and timely information that contributes in the improvement of the quality of education. SchoolsPost-secondaryInformation societyICT in education initiativesVirtual initatives in schoolsA journal article describes the founding in 1998 of the first virtual school in Bogotá -Colombia Virtual Ibero America, Virtual Century College XXI, with permission from the education authorities to certify students in primary and secondary education, who study at primary and secondary levels. Students may attend one day a week for tutorials and sports and cultural activities. It was accredited by ICFES, but there is no clear link to a current website. Source: [www.quadernsdigitals.net/index.php?accionMenu=hemeroteca...id...] Plataforma Escuela Virtual is the VLE for Escuela Virtual de Caldas. The last entry on the school blog is from 2008 and the VLE does not appear to have progressed beyond the first two stages of development. Virtual initiatives in post-secondary educationThere have been major developments in virtual programmes for vocational training since 2007, particularly at SENA; CESDE; and INCAP - see separate entries for these.
Interesting Virtual Campus InitiativesUniversity De Los Andes (Universidad de los Andes, http://www.uniandes.edu.co – with English site at http://ingles.uniandes.edu.co/) is one of the best private universities in Colombia and the earliest one which was non-denominational. It was founded in 1948 by a small group of young, charismatic and well-connected men and has now grown to over 12000 students with over 1100 teaching staff (nearly half of which are full-time). Other sites likely to be of interest:
Virtual CampusUniversidad Santiago de Cali (Spanish) Universidad del Valle (Spanish) Universidad de Manizales(Spanish) Centro de Desarrollo Tecnológico en Campus Virtual Technology Development Center Virtual Campus Award Educational Computing Network RIBIE and the opportunity to represent Colombia at the Seventh Congress held in Chile RIBIE (Rede Iberoamericana de Informática Educativa). Universidad Virtual La Gran Colombia (Spanish) Vendors
See Colombia Aprende. Distance LearningUniversidad Autónoma de Bucaramanga, UNAB (Spanish) Colombia has a long tradition of distance education, which began with the Radio Schools Radio Network Radio Sutatenza was directed mainly to the rural population. Activities were subsequently developed in various universities, pioneering the University of Santo Tomáswww.ustadistancia.edu.co which has a wide variety and experience. The experience was initially Unisur popular in Bogota and then supported its growth during the government of Belisario Betancur, changed its name to National Open University and Distance UNAD and expand its coverage throughout the country as the true national coverage of college and the only in Colombia dedicated to distance education. The UNAD offers students two mediations, one with traditional meetings, where the student goes to a distance learning center to meet with your group and your tutor, and the other is through the virtual campus, virtual classrooms through where the student enters anywhere on the planet. There is also the Institute of Distance Education at the University of Tolima (IDEAD) based in the city of Ibague. Universidad Antonio Nariño was also a pioneer in distance education model and today many universities have distance learning systems every day to expand the facilities offered by ICT. The College of Public Administration, ESAP, started its undergraduate distance learning programs in 1983. The initial program was 6 semesters and given the title of Municipal Administration Technologist. then developed the professional cycling in 1988 and was granted the title of Municipal and Regional Public Administrator. In 1998, authorized by the Ministry of Education with a new program called Public Administration Terrritorial, APT. ESAP also offers graduate programs (majors) to distance given by the Regional Directorates (15 in the country). View www.esap.edu.co Recently approved the creation of the Virtual University thus seeks to improve the supply of higher education throughout the country. I hope to offer distance education (virtual) in no time. There are several options in the market for educational services that offer education in 100% virtual mode, we can mention Virtual Education Corporation Unicolombia www.unicolombia.edu.co to enter the world of virtual education Colombian in 2005 and today for today Business offers diplomas and courses in various areas of knowledge and all on the same virtual method. For editing sourced from Wikipedia e-LearningA temporary coalition E-Learning A temporary coalition E-Learning Colombia formed by the Universidad Autonoma de Bucaramanga, UNAB, (http://www.unabvirtual.edu.co/) Universidad Autonoma de Occidente (http://www.uaovirtual.edu.co/blog/?page_id=184) , UAO, Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar, UTB, (http://english.unitecnologica.edu.co/ ), the Technological University of Pereira, UTP (http://univirtual.utp.edu.co/ ), Escuela Colombiana de Ingeniería "Julio Garavito" (http://www.escuelaing.edu.co/ ) and CEIPA University Foundation (http://www.ceipa.edu.co/ceipa/ ), organizes the course "Tutoring in Virtual Learning Environments." The creation of this project brings together the experiences of academic institutions that form the joint venture, bringing its expertise in implementing new technologies in higher education in Colombia.
Lessons learntReferencesNetworks:
Colombian Government sites:
GOs, NGOs etc: British Council in Colombia – http://www.britishcouncil.org/es/colombia.htm
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