Significant efforts by Colombia ensure that nearly 200,000 Venezuelan children and youth have access to the educational system
UNESCO’s national report with a focus on Colombia highlights their efforts to serve the Venezuelan population in their territory. Of 460,000 children under 18 with school needs, over 198,000 are already enrolled in the educational system, most of them in primary and secondary education (79%). However, around 260,000 still remain outside the educational system.
The report highlights that the educational response for this emergency requires greater financial and technical support, as well as for national initiatives and development plans that strengthen the educational system and provide opportunities for displaced persons and host communities.
Santiago, Chile -On May 25, 2020, the Regional Office for Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (OREALC/UNESCO Santiago) released a national report focused on Colombia addressing the main challenges and transformative actions in the educational response to the mixed migration flow of 1,400,000 Venezuelans in that country.
The report “The right to education under pressure: Main challenges and transformative actions in the educational response to the mixed migratory flow of the Venezuelan population in Colombia” (in Spanish, “El derecho a la educación bajo presión: Principales desafíos y acciones transformadoras en la respuesta educativa al flujo migratorio mixto de población venezolana en Colombia”) was prepared in collaboration with the Norwegian Council for Refugees (NRC) and analyzes the multiple needs, problems and obstacles that boys and girls in Venezuela face to realize their full right to education. The report is the product of an exhaustive documentary analysis from secondary sources on educational responses directed at the Venezuelan population in Colombia and has written aiming to contribute to evidence-based decision-making.
The document details the methodology used for its elaboration and develops an educational evaluation framework for contexts of mixed mass displacement. This framework allows to systematize the state of the educational response, including different fundamental dimensions for guaranteeing the right to education in contexts of emergency or prolonged crisis, among which are access, adaptability of the response, and accountability. Addressing these dimensions allows establishing the population’s education and learning needs, considering the analysis of secondary sources, questionnaires addressed to the national teams of different institutions, and participatory workshops with officials from the Ministry of National Education, experts from the United Nations and civil society.