During the Council of Ministers of September 2, 2025, President Gustavo Petro presented a balance of educational results that It was analyzed by the Business Foundation for Education (EXE).
The data confirmed an increase of 3.6 points in the overall average of the KNOWING TESTS between 2022 and 2024. However, the technical analysis warns that this increase does not necessarily reflect improvements in learning, but alterations in the composition of the student population evaluated.
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Between 2022 and 2024, the number of students of socioeconomic levels 1, 2 and 3 was reduced by about 73,000, while those of strata 4, 5 and 6 increased by almost 20,000. The result is that students with better performances were more represented in the sample, which raised the global average without a substantive improvement in the educational system.
A similar phenomenon had occurred during the pandemic. In 2020, the national average increased because fewer low -income students could present the test due to social distancing conditions. “There are more students with good performance in the sample, the national average increased artificially, without meaning learning in learning”, Recalled the report.
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The gap between women and men in knowing tests grew from 7 points in 2021 to 10 points in 2024, against women.
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The analysis also referred to the evolution of the structural gaps. The difference between men and women went from 7 points in 2021 to 10 points in 2024, to the detriment of women. Between urban and rural areas the gap grew at a point in that same period.
As for the education sector, it was denied that private schools had decreased their average: 274 points went from 2021 to 278 in 2024. In contrast, Rural official schools are 71 points below private ones, while in urban areas the difference is 23 points.
The increase in the results of the official schools, of 4.8 points between 2022 and 2024, is also explained by the composition of the students. In that period it was reduced by 46,698 (-22.21 %) the number of students of the socioeconomic level 1 who presented the testwhile those of level 4 increased by 7,759 (124.18 %). Thus, the best results in the official sector can be attributed to the statistical effect and not to an improvement in quality.
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In 2024, rural official schools are 71 points below private ones, while in urban areas the difference is 23 points.
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Analysis by presidential periods
In the analysis for presidential periods, it was recognized that the average of the departments was lower in 2022 compared to 2018 and major in 2024 compared to 2022. However, It was noted that this reading does not take into account the effects of pandemic on learning.
Nor was evidence found to attribute the recent results to specific policies of the current government. “There was no forceful evidence for this statement. There was no mention of specific programs and policies of the current government to which the changes can be attributed”, Said the document.
The figures also show a stagnation in key areas such as natural and social and citizen sciences. Between 2022 and 2024, Less than 3% of the students reached the highest level in natural sciences, while 67% were at the lowest levels.
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Less than 3 % of students reached the highest level in natural sciences and less than 4 % achieved it in social and citizens between 2022 and 2024.
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In social and citizens, less than 4% reached the best level, while 70% remained at the lower two levels. The differences by socioeconomic level are notorious: while 32% of the lowest strata students were at level 1 of performance, That percentage was just 5% among high strata.
Another aspect indicated was school permanence. Although the dropout decreased between 2022 and 2023, the repetition increased from 7.25 % to 9.04 %, and the reprobation rose from 6.7 % to 7.65 %. “These are official figures from the Ministry of National Education and the 2024 cut has not yet been published”Said the analysis.
The report also recalled the results of the PISA tests between 2012 and 2015, when Colombia registered its greatest advance since it participates in the international evaluation. Mathematics went from 376 to 390 points, reading from 402 to 425 and science from 399 to 416. Bogotá showed a similar behavior, with a jump from 392 to 426 in mathematics, from 422 to 469 in reading and from 411 to 458 in science. The positive results of that period correspond to a national improvement trend and cannot be explained solely by the management of a local administration.
“There is no empirical evidence or impact evaluations that allow attributing advances in PISA to specific educational policies of that period”, Says the document, which also recalled that documented strategies or evaluated programs are not known that directly explain the relationship between these policies and the results obtained.
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The enrollment in higher education reached 2,561,707 students in 2024, with an accumulated growth of 128,000 between 2018 and 2024.
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Higher education
In terms of higher education, the government reported the creation of 190,000 new quotas. However, the document clarifies that there is no official indicator of university quotas in the country. What was recorded was an increase of 190,504 students enrolled between 2022 and 2024 in first -year university, technical and technological programs.
Since 2016, The enrollment in higher education has oscillated around 2.32 million students, and in 2024 reached 2.56 million. Between 2018 and 2022 the growth was 75,000 students and in the 2018-2024 period it accumulated 128,000.
The distribution per level of training in 2024 was: University (64%), technological (24%), specialization (5%), technique (4%), mastery (3%) and doctorate (less than 1%). The institutions that increased their enrollment between 2016 and 2024 were the National Open University, with 219,701 new students; the National Unified Corporation of Higher Education (CUN), with 52,523; the University Foundation of the Andean Area, with 33,864; the Ibero -American University Corporation, with 28,102; and the Grancolombian Polytechnic, with 27,273.
The analysis shows that, since 2016, virtual registration has grown while the face -to -face has been reduced. The official sector has led growth in virtual modality, with variations of 30% in 2021, 14% in 2023 and 10% in 2024. In contrast, the face -to -face registration of the private sector was reduced by 144,331 students between 2017 and 2024, while in the official sector the fall was 15,205.
In the virtual modality, the SENA and the Open National University and Distance lead the increases, with 228,596 and 219,701 additional students respectively between 2016 and 2024. In the face -to -face modality, the University of the Valley increased by 14,101 students, followed by the Santiago de Cali University with 13,294, the Antonio José Camacho University Institution with 10,965, the Technological University of Chocó with 10,314 and the Technological of Antioquia with 10.009.
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Diana K. Rodríguez T.
Portfolio journalist
