The Colombian city of Cartagena is supporting the establishment of new educational centers which aim to get more highschool students to go on to take higher education courses.
The goal of the Ministry for District Education over the next two years, coinciding with the Bicentennial of Independence, is to ensure that of the 7,500 highschool students in Cartagena, very few leave without going on to take a further education course, reported newspaper El Tiempo on Monday.
The Ministry is setting up Regional Centers for Higher Education (Ceres) in various highschools across the city.
According to the Secretary of Education, July Alandete, “Cartagena is the only city in Colombia to have ten Ceres'” – three have already been set up and another seven are awaiting the next semester to launch their programs.
Alandete told El Tiempo that once the seven other centers are functioning, 2010 new places for low-income highschool graduates will be available, which will fill 50% of the eduational demand.
Most of the Ceres’ hold evening timetables and each one will provide mobile class rooms, ten laptops, a digital blackboard and a “video beam”. The intention being to make classes more dynamic and interactive.
El Tiempo claims that the Government will invest 1,000 million pesos in the new facilities – with each one costing about 150 million pesos and the Mayor of Cartagena intends to invest some 3 billion pesos into the new education proposals.
The Ceres’ will run courses ranging from Tourism and Hospitality Management to Health Service Management and Technologies with the intention of creating careers for graduate which will be in demand in the competitive Cartagena industries.
Students who enroll at the Ceres’ will only be required to pay 25% of the tuition fees and the Mayor of the city has stated that as an incentive he will pay the full tuition for students who graduate from highschool with high grades.
