education is homework

The most preponderant factor in the development of a society is education, not only does technical and disciplinary knowledge depend on it to enter the world of work, but something even more important, which is training in citizenship, the ability to work with others and stage the values.
Despite the above, Colombia has relegated education for decades by not having public policies as fundamental pillars in a national project that is comprehensive, with a robust budget. For now, only some programs without coordination can be highlighted, such as De Cero a Siempre, Ser Pilo Paga and Generación E, the High Quality accreditations of the Universities or Escuela Nueva.
The new president of Colombia (when writing this column the results of the second round were not known), will have to make a big commitment to education. The first thing is to deepen the policy for early childhood. A great bet of Fecode is the creation of the 3 years of preschool in all public schools, since currently only one transition year is mandatory. This work with early childhood should include a feeding program both at school and at home every day of the year, some students lose weight during vacation periods, a country that does not take care of its children is doomed to failure.
Second, contemplate the creation of a new general education law. The current law is 115 of 1994, designed for the needs of 30 years ago. Now it is evident that the greatest deficiency of Colombian education is the quality of basic and secondary education, since Colombia obtained in the 2019 PISA tests a score of 412 points in reading, 391 in mathematics and 413 in science, the three for below the OECD average. Likewise, the low levels in language and mathematics obtained in the SABER 11 tests, formerly ICFES, suggest the need for a broad construction on the solutions to the problem of quality, which includes experts in education, managers, teachers, families and students, but more than proof, today’s world needs a more humane, more empathic, more connected look, which today’s education does not offer.
Third, improve learning environments. On the one hand, groups of 40 or 45 students are anti-pedagogical and, on the other hand, thinking and learning cannot be seen in a fragmented way if the aim is to improve the quality of education; For this reason, it is essential to create broad units of knowledge and to ensure that what students learn is useful in solving problems in the contexts of student action. High school students study between 15 and 20 subjects, teachers do little or nothing to mainstream content, each teacher is the king of a small island and students must navigate from island to island without a map.
Finally, much is said about the increase in the budget for education, which is close to 4 billion pesos. It is important to try to double this amount and allocate it to improve basic services such as access to water in rural schools, supplies for classrooms such as televisions and audio systems, laboratories, system rooms, textbooks, literature, dictionaries , specialized rooms such as laboratories and system rooms. All these provisions, which are not found in public schools in the country because the only resource for most is a blackboard, according to research such as that of the Phd Harvy Vivas (2007), have a high incidence on school results.
None of the above will be easy, but it is a critical step in making a leap to improve Colombia’s future and save its education, so President, do your homework.

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