EDUCATION IN COLOMBIA IN BRAZIL.

EDUCATION IN COLOMBIA

by: Sandra Murcia

Compreheds the formal and non-formal education. Formal education is composed of nursery school, elementary school, high school and technical instruction and college education. The basic goal expected for the average citizen is of 11 grades (elementary school and mid high school). The covering of basic education for the state institutions is about 50%. The private institutions cover the other 50% and most of the technical and university formation, due to the scarcity of public resources destined to education.

KINDERGARTEN

Most of the children under 5 years are provided with daycare and nursery school in community homes, sponsored by the National Institute for Family Welfare (ICBF acronym in Spanish), where mothers form 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 elemetary school. There are also a large number of private kindergarten facilities, but most of the time the high fees are very restrictive to the average family.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Elementary school last 5 years and is meant to provide the basic skills to achieve non-qualifiedjobs. Primary education is free and compulsory for nine years for children between 6 and 12years of age. The net primary enrollment (percentage of revelant age-group) in 2001 was 86.7percent. The completion rate (percentage of age-group) for children attending elementaryschool primary in 2001 totaled 89.5 percent. In many rural areas, teachers are poorlyqualified, and only five years of primary school are offered.Due to the insufficiency of the existing institutions to accomplish the full coverage of the childrenpopulation, the public education system has adopted the "automatic promotion" as standardpractice, meaning that the children are promoted to the next grade no matter the achievementof goals, with the purpose to avoid extra years of occupancy in the schools.

HIGH SCHOOL

Secondary education is divided in basic secondary (grades 6th to 9th) and mind secondary(grades 10th and 11th). Ner secondary enrollment in 2001 was 53.5 percent. School lifeexpectancy in 2001 was 11.1 years.In orden to access college or technical education, high school students must take the statal testevidence of state, provied by "Instituto Colombiano para el Fomento de la Educación Superior-ICFES".

UNIVERSITY EDUCATION

Superior education is divided into under-graduate degrees and post-graduate degrees and isregulated by the 30th law of 1992. Most of the university degrees are five years long. Technicalformation usually lasts 3 years. Post-graduate education includes master´s degrees and PhD.

EDUCATION IN BRAZIL

The education system in Brazil, throughout its history, was organized in several ways. In general, included three types of education they received different names:

· Primary (elementary, gymnasium, 1st half round).

· Secondary (classical, scientific, half a second cycle).

· and Superior.

Currently the education system comprises the following levels:

· Early Childhood Education (Garden and Preschool): First stage of basic education for, generally, for children younger than 7 years. (Garden or kindergarten: children up to 3 years age and preschool: Children aged 4 to 6).

· Basic education (first round): Second stage of basic education with a period of 8 years of study, From 7 to 14 years of age. In Brazil it is the obligation on the part of the State to guarantee the universality of education at this level of education.

· Educational Media and Technology (second round): Final stage of basic education with a duration varying between 3 and 4 years, from 15 to 17 or 18 years old.

· Higher Education: Degree courses with a duration of 4 to 6 years. Education is compulsory for 8 years of study that is around the level of Basic Education.