Teacher Education in Colombia 3.16.11

            Monica Lopez, the Director of Quality for Pre-school, Basic and Middle School Education, spent the morning explaining the extent of decentralization of the Colombian education system.  Essentially, the Ministry of Education provides quality guidelines but no curriculum to schools.  Some of the major goals of the Ministry to increase quality are: (i) reduce the drop-out rate, (ii) decrease the gap between rural and urban schools, and (iii) decrease the gap between urban and rural schools.  Furthermore, each institution develops its own improvement plan depending on their internal evaluation.  The Ministry currently faces a grand challenge on how to create an incentive system for improvement in a decentralized system.  Perhaps, something akin to the ‘Race to the Top’ scheme in the U.S. might be an effective means of getting schools at the local level to comply with national goals.

            The Ministry emphasized that their new system aims to get rid of nepotism and the system, and thus teachers are appointed by merit (based on their tests/resume).  Teachers are then assigned to vacant posts.  Initially, there is a probation period (3 years), and even afterwards teachers undergo annual evaluations.  There is a clear track for promotion, and teachers are evaluated based on their (i) skills, (ii) time of service, and (iii) competencies needed for further training.

The President of the Education and School Association then explained the teacher training system in Colombia in more depth.  The organization was founded in 1994, the same year that marks the beginning of major education reforms in the country.  Today, 83 out of 92 institutions are members.  The intent of the teacher training universities is to bring an academic perspective to the field—not just the voice of the teacher union.  Teacher curriculum is developed by a representative committee of faculty and students.  Each teacher must also complete a practicum (student teaching) for at least 2-3 semesters. 

High-school ends at 11^th grade in Colombia, after which you could attend higher education for an additional 2 years and be eligible to teach primary schools, while an additional 4 years translated to eligibility to teach secondary school.  The Ministry explained that there are extensive quality assurance processes in place to ensure that university programs are up to par.  More interestingly, there is now increasing emphasis on teaching diversity in terms of appreciation of indigenous languages and attention to students with disabilities.  In fact, one of the main teacher competencies is being able to communicate effectively in a foreign language.  It’s unclear, however, from our brief exposure to the public school system how much these policies are actually enacted and followed through.    

            One of the deans of a prestigious teacher university brought to our attention a study that found a decrease in applications for acceptance to the mostly private education institutions.  This was explained by socio-economic obstacles, as most students cannot afford the cost of a private university.  Furthermore, there is an over-supply of teachers in big cities, as urban teachers are averse to being placed outside.  Thus, the Ministry is trying to recruit local teachers and train them.  The deans also pointed out that teaching in the public sector has become an attractive option now, and the occupation boasts (gradually) higher rates of retention.

            Just like the U.S., however, the million dollar question is how to attract Colombia’s finest to commit to teaching in the public sector.  The deans posed an interesting question to us regarding how we attract great teachers in the U.S.  We mentioned the Boston Teacher Residency program, which significantly reduces the cost and barriers to entry, as well as the various teaching fellows programs.  It was interesting that they posed the question, since Colombia is in the process of potentially launching a ‘Teach for’ venture.  It was also unclear how difficult the barriers to entry are for a working professional who wants to transition into education.    

            I’ve been thinking a lot about the role of teacher education in the U.S. given the rise of alternative certification programs.  I don’t think Colombia is at that stage yet, but it will be interesting to see if education reforms ignite the creation of more alternative certification programs and whether these programs will be of higher quality than the traditional route of certification.

Ay-Nur