Education

Education is every child's right. If children in Colombia are to break free from poverty, education is crucial. It gives them options and opportunities to build independent and fulfilling lives. Education is also a joy in itself.

COTA is helping our local partners to work towards educational inclusion for all children in Colombia. This means three things: access to education for all, completing education once begun, and having a decent quality of education with good teachers.

Even though the Colombian constitution requires children aged five to fifteen to go to school, at least one million Colombian children currently do not receive any formal education. Children of the Andes is working in partnership with programmes which address the specific educational needs of out-of-school and vulnerable children. Our aim is to support accessible, high-quality education which enables all children to flourish.

There are many reasons why children do not attend school; including the pressure to work, exclusion because of disability and the costs of books and uniform. Drop out rates are also high. The longer children are out of school the less likely it is that they will ever attend, due to the gap between their age and academic level. Children who do not attend school are at high risk of being exploited as child workers, being recruited into illegal armed groups and becoming trapped in a cycle of poverty and social exclusion.