Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos announced a $50 million plan to improve education over the next four years a press release from the presidential palace said Monday.
In the television program “Urna de Crystal” (The Glass Urn), Santos explained the government’s priorities in the education sector.
“We have new and urgent challenges: increasing comprehensive care in early childhood and that more young people graduate from high school and enter into higher education, without which we cannot compete globally. To achieve this, we will invest in education more than $50 million within four years,” he president said.
To raise the quality standard in educational establishments across the country, schools that are working well will be recognized and encouraged to publicize their practices and schools that are failing academic standards will be diagnosed to assess the problem and implement corrective measures as well as being offered incentives to improve, according to Santos.
The head of state also indicated that a significant amount of resources will be earmarked for innovation and technology. By 2014 the government plans to increase computer to student ratio from one computer for every 20 students, to one computer for every 12.
The overarching goal of the initiative will be to see more Colombians graduating from higher education with the government offering equity for low-income youth to go to college and promoting the study of vocational subjects.