The school year is ending and many are afraid of failing, but be careful: by law, no student can miss the year just because. What is it about?
He is approaching Closing of the school year in Colombia and, while many students enjoy with peace of mind having fulfilled all academic requirements, others face uncertainty and fear of not being promoted to the next grade.
However, Colombian educational legislation protects students against arbitrary or poorly communicated decisions, No student can lose the year without a prior process of pedagogical accompaniment or without their parents or guardians being informed in a timely manner.
Decree 1290 of 2009 of the Ministry of National Education, which regulates school evaluation and promotion, states in its article 11 that schools must maintain constant communication with the educational community.
The standard indicates that institutions must hold meetings and give recommendations to students and parents about academic processesthus guaranteeing support before making decisions about promotion or loss of the school year.
Furthermore, the evaluation must be formative, comprehensive and continuous, that is, it cannot be based on a single grade, exam or period, but must reflect the entire student process throughout the year.
Added to this is the General Education Law (Law 115 of 1994)which establishes that education is a comprehensive process in which school, teachers and families must work together.
Before making a non-promotion decision, institutions are obliged to provide pedagogical support actions, guidance and monitoring. It is not only about evaluating results, but about accompanying the processes.
The Ministry of National Education has reinforced these principles in the guidelines issued in 2022 and 2023, remembering that any decision to disapprove must be supported by evidence, follow-up reports and formal communication with the family or guardian.
Therefore, institutions must offer improvement plans so that students have the opportunity to overcome their difficulties before closing the academic year.
Can the year be lost just because? expert analyzes it
The lawyer Fernando Beltran He explains it clearly: “If you think that a student can lose the year just because, you are lying. The evaluation system is not a mystery, and parents have the right to know about it.”. This should include evaluation criteria, follow-up actions and periodic reports on student performance. If there is poor performance, the school must accompany the student and keep the family informed,” said the expert on his TikTok account.
In other words, if a student misses the year without there having been a prior communication process or without evidence of support, The educational institution would be failing to comply with the regulations.
In these cases, parents can demand explanations and request a review of the process before the competent authorities. The objective of these laws is not to facilitate automatic promotion, but to guarantee a more humane, fair and formative education.
The school should not limit itself to grading, but rather to guide and accompany. Therefore, more than fearing “waste the year”, students and families They must know their rights and demand compliance with what the law establishes: an education that evaluates learning as a process, not as a sentence.
