International Development Division : IDD
June 2007
Forum Unites Public, Private Actors Seeking to Improve Education in Colombia
Children of coffee-growing families are often underserved by the Colombian education system. Many parents must choose between sending their children to school and keeping them home to help support the family business. Unfortunately, many decide that school is not worth the cost in time and money.
On March 8th and 9th, 2007 Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) sponsored a forum that brought together members from Colombian and International public and private sectors to discuss how to support education for coffee-growing families. Entitled “Supporting Education for Coffee-Growing Families: The Role of Public-Private Partnerships,” the forum was the first of its kind to specifically focus on the role of corporate social responsibility in improving Colombian education. The forum was well attended by representatives from major coffee companies, coffee roasters and retailers, the Colombian government, non-governmental organizations, and international donors.
The forum provided an opportunity for participants to discuss the past, present and future of education in Colombia. One forum participant, Pablo Jarmillo, Director of Education for the Caldas Department Committee of the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia, said progress has been made over the last 25 years. “When we began this work, coffee growers didn’t worry about whether their children received a good education” said Jarmillo. “In fact, many of them felt that education and agriculture were incompatible. Today, parents see opportunities through education, and are playing a bigger and more positive role.”
Challenges Remain
Although there has been progress, Jaramillo and others agree that many challenges still exist. According to Adriana González, Coordinator of the Rural Education Program from Colombia’s Ministry of Education, rural areas had illiteracy rates of 19.5% in 2005, and test scores in math, language, and science among rural students lagged two to three percent behind those of their urban counterparts. School attendance is also an issue in coffee-growing regions, adds Mauricio Perfetti, Executive Director of the Manuel Mejía Foundation. Attendance among 12- to 17-year-olds in some areas falls below 50%.
Still, these numbers represent a vast improvement from the early 1980s. At that time, coffee growers averaged only 3.4 years of schooling; now, the average is about 8 years. And despite the total rural illiteracy rate of 19.5%, only 8.5% of rural 15- to 24-year-olds are illiterate. It is important that these promising trends are supported and improved.
Forum Outcomes
Public-private partnerships can be a key element in the development and implementation of creative solutions to Colombia’s education problems. Over the course of two days, forum participants discussed methods of improving education for these communities. Major conclusions drawn from the forum include the following:
1. Colombia has a long and fruitful history of public-private partnerships which are models for the rest of the world. The Escuela Nueva model of community-based schools exemplifies the potential of private sector contributions. Introduced in 1975, Escuela Nueva promotes rural schools that focus on active learning, have an orientation toward rural life, view teachers as facilitators of learning (rather than transmitters of information) and foster community involvement in schooling. Thanks to the Colombian Coffee Federation, this model has not only survived, it has grown to reflect new realities and become part of the national curriculum. The model has also been replicated in many countries as a way to provide sustainable and highly relevant instruction. Such investment in research and development, along with maintenance and sharing of such a methodology, demonstrates the Colombian private sector’s long-term commitments to the social sector.
2. Education, agriculture, and the economy are linked. The diverse group of forum participants made clear that improving education can increase both quality of life and productivity in all aspects of the coffee growing sector. Fernando Bálcazar (COF/CCO), who oversees agricultural improvement programs for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), explained that he was not sure at first why he had been invited to a forum focusing on education. It became clear for him during the forum, however, that there are important relationships between agriculture and education, with education supporting improvements in productivity, better and more sustainable growing practices, protection of the environment, and empowerment of coffee growers.
3. Youth need education that is relevant to rural settings. Colombian youth frequently drop out of school, especially once they become active in their family’s agricultural activities (around sixth grade). Only 69% of secondary school-age children in Colombia are actually in school, and just 30% of the urban students and 16% of rural students complete their basic education. These high dropout rates indicate that youth and their families do not find education relevant to their needs and daily lives. For this reason, it is imperative that education includes workforce development and rural productivity training to encourage youth to remain in school and complete their secondary education. A number of forum participants are working toward that end. For example, the Colombian Foundation for Education and Opportunity supports the Escuela y Café program, which educates youth in managing successful coffee-growing businesses and teaches them to share their newly acquired knowledge with parents and other community members. This program does not encourage youth labor, but rather prepares youth for the not-so-distant future when they will need to support their families. It also encourages an intergenerational change of knowledge and skills desperately needed in the coffee sector. Four young people (pictured above) who have benefited from this program described how they put their skills into action in their families’ businesses.
4. Early childhood education can help rural children succeed. Education specialists at the forum noted that significant numbers of children enter first grade unprepared for school and that there are few preschool offerings for parents who want their children to become better prepared. This is a concern especially among families under the most economic duress in which both parents are working. Several private sector companies represented at the forum expressed interest in supporting early childhood education, particularly in situations where both parents work and there are few options for early childhood development.
5. Providing education to the rural poor has proven one of the greatest challenges for the many parties working to improve education in Colombia. Extremely poor families are most likely to seek short-term economic gain, albeit minimal, at the expense of the long-term economic promise offered by education. The children of these families often drop out very early, repeat grades due to high absenteeism, or receive a poor education due to lack of community resources. This makes providing relevant workforce skills difficult. One forum participant noted a desire on the part of private companies to address this problem through basic education, and urged international organizations with matching funds programs to support these efforts.
6. Providing education to populations affected by armed conflict and geographical barriers remains a major challenge. Katharine Yasin, Center Director of the International Development Division at EDC, described past and current efforts using media to overcome this barrier. The possibilities range from low technology solutions, such as the Interactive Radio Instruction used in Chocó to train teachers in Escuela Nueva methodologies, to higher technology solutions, such as the internet connectivity and software used by groups of youth in northern coastal areas and in rural interior regions to share lessons on environmental education. Such technological solutions bring quality education to remote regions and provide consistency in the lives of the learners reached.
7. Matching-funds programs for public-private partnerships are important. Both the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the IDB explained the importance of the private sector to the social and agricultural sectors. USAID provides matching funds through the Global Development Alliance (GDA), while the IDB provides matching funds through the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF or FOMIN, its acronym in Spanish). Both of these programs provide matching funds for resources provided by public-private alliances. These programs are extremely important not only to leverage the private sector’s support, but also to encourage the formation of public-private partnerships.
8. There are numerous advantages to forming public-private partnerships to pursue solutions to the remaining challenges. There are many motivations for both public and private actors to engage in alliances that work to improve education. Forum groups agreed that resources, financial and otherwise, from both sectors can bolster the efforts. Additionally, it was acknowledged that private sector companies are increasingly involved in such alliances not only for philanthropic reasons but also for the general health of the company and its employees. Such alliances can be socially responsible while producing a more educated workforce and a sector more competitive in the international marketplace.
The forum provided many examples of successful public-private partnerships. The city of Medellín invests 40% of its budget in education and has partnered with numerous private entities to build schools and libraries in the poorest sections of the city; the Luker Foundation is working with the Department of Manizales and several private actors to improve work skills among secondary students; the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia is working with financial institutions to supply youth and young adults with education and credit so that they can cooperatively run coffee growing businesses. Ideas inspired by these successful examples and connections made during the forum have led to potential new partnerships both domestically and internationally, primarily between the U.S. and Colombia.
Rural children and youth in Colombia still face barriers to obtaining a high quality and relevant education, and the forum made clear that public and private entities share the concern and resources needed to continue improving educational services. With the increased demand among coffee growing families for education, the potential to enhance the lives of their children is clear. In uniting concerned individuals from public and private organizations, the forum appears to have planted seeds in fertile ground.
Forum participants included: Cementos Argos; Corporación Universitaria Un Minuto de Dios; ECAFE Foundation; Intel; Inter-American Development Bank (IDB); International Organization for Migration (IOM); Luker Foundation; Manuel Mejia Foundation; National Federationof Coffee-Growers of Colombia.; National Ministry of Education; Nestlé; Racafe; Secretaría de Educación de Medellín; Starbucks; Technoserve; United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
IDD is a division of Education Development Center (EDC), an international, nonprofit organization with more than 325 projects dedicated to enhancing learning, promoting health, and fostering a deeper understanding of the world.
© 2009 Education Development Center