Education in Colombia by OECD

Author:OECD
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Education
ISBN: 9789264250604
Publisher: OECD Publishing
Published: 2016-04-21T08:00:00+00:00

Initial teacher education

Achieving teaching excellence requires ensuring that those who aspire to enter the profession have the potential and motivation to develop high-quality teaching skills and that they are enabled to do so through well-designed teacher training programmes. There is evidence in Colombia that the teaching profession is not attracting high-calibre students and that many of those who seek to become teachers might lack the basic competencies required to excel. Students who enrol in teacher education programmes tend to have the lowest results across all tertiary programmes in the university entrance examination (SABER 11) (García et al., 2014). In contrast, a common feature of high-performing education systems is that they recruit their teachers from the top tier of secondary graduates (Barber and Mourshed, 2007).

To attract top graduates into teaching degrees, Colombia introduced a scholarship programme in recent years and is currently considering its further expansion through a specific scholarship for top-performing disadvantaged students (see Chapter 5). Scholarships to attract high performing students have had some positive results in other countries. For instance, in Chile, the proportion of students with top scores enrolled in quality initial teacher education programmes almost doubled after the introduction of targeted scholarships (Alvarado et al., 2012). There are additional steps that Colombia could take that could help to draw more high-calibre students into the profession, and deter those who may not have the right skills. Finland provides an example of how stringent admission procedures, which focus on the right qualities and limit the number of places on the basis of performance and a firm projection of teacher needs, could guide entry to initial teacher education. In Finland, the selection process is structured in two rounds: first, a national multiple-choice examination is applied to all candidates to test their numeracy, literacy and problem-solving skills; second, the top-scoring candidates are invited to the following stage of the selection procedure, which is organised by universities and consists of assessing candidates’ communication skills, willingness to learn, academic ability and motivation for teaching (Barber and Mourshed, 2007). To attract and retain top graduates, Colombia needs to be more selective in its intake of potential teachers and introduce additional pay and career progression incentives.

As well as improving admissions procedures, Colombia needs to ensure that all teacher training programmes adequately prepare students for entry into teaching. There are several concerns regarding the quality of initial teacher education in Colombia. Primary teachers still only need a post-secondary but non-tertiary qualification, such as that provided by an ENS. The vast majority of OECD countries have raised the requirement for teacher training to a tertiary-level qualification, which signals a higher level of knowledge and skills and can also help raise the social status of the profession (OECD, 2005). Raising the threshold in Colombia, however, would only enhance teacher preparedness if the quality of teacher training provided by tertiary institutions is significantly improved. Only 19% of the tertiary institutions providing teaching degrees in Colombia have received high-quality accreditation (García et al., 2014), raising questions about the standard of training in the majority of education faculties.

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