Rural Education in Colombia

Aratoca is a municipality in the department of Santander in Colombia. Throughout the municipality there are eleven PK-11th grade schools. Today, we were fortunate to visit two of the schools in this rural municipality, both of which overlook the beautiful Chicamocha Canyon. An interesting contrast between the two schools was that the first, which is the main campus, had more students than space. Every available space was used as a classroom, including the open courtyard that served as the entryway to the school, which overlooked a busy highway. The second school was quite spacious, but had few students, and each teacher had multiple levels in just one classroom (for example, PK-5th grade in one class). Through these visits we saw first-hand the obstacles that rural schools face. Aside from the mixing of grade levels, another obstacle for these schools is the access to resources, such as books, functioning computers, and the internet. At an even more basic level, secondary teachers at these schools sometimes have to teach subjects that they're not licensed to teach. However, despite these obstacles, we learned that 75% of the students at the schools in Aratoca go on to pursue post-secondary studies. Overall, I was struck by the enthusiasm and determination of the students to learn, as well as by the motivation of their teachers to pursue their own professional development and to overcome obstacles in order to provide their students with the best education possible.

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