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Innovar

versión impresa ISSN 0121-5051

Innovar v.21 n.41 Bogotá sep./dic. 2011

 

 

 

Editorial

Education reforms will always generate controversy. this is only natural given the sensitive topic involved, namely to define a nation's educative policy.

In the Colombian case, in recent years there have been diverse efforts aimed at analyzing improvements in education, such as:

– The mission for the modernization of the Public University and its Base studies

– The education, science and development mission and its Report: Colombia on the Cusp of opportunity

– The national Commission for the development of Higher education, towards an agenda of transformation of Higher education: approaches and Recommendations

– The national seminar on theory and Praxis of the management of Higher education institutions

– Synthesis of the Working materials of the Process of social mobilization for Higher education and Bases for a state Policy in the Field of Higher education

– The Congress: Higher education, Global Challenge and national Response

However, only with the Constitution of 1991 has there been a mandate for quality as the guiding objective of educational processes. this mandate was included in law 30 of 1992, which formulated elements and entities of a system responsible for promoting and judging the quality of the programs and institutions of higher education. although the law organized the provision of the service of higher education, consecrating the institutions at this level as centers for knowledge based on the autonomy conferred upon them by the Constitution, adequate controls were not established to avoid freedom without responsibility. in the view of many academics, this led to an increase of programs of doubtful quality. this growth of programs in many cases came about without taking into account the society's real needs, without an adequate plan, without evaluating real resources and with the clear goal of profit-making.

The concept of quality in the educational sphere is complex and controversial, because it touches upon the experience and interests of those who would analyze it. the custom is to start with the concepts of quality in organizations, whether industrial or commercial ones, thereby reducing educational quality to the vision of an institution as a company that manages knowledge. From my perspective, this leaves out the human quality of those who are involved in the process. in developing countries such as Colombia, an additional variable is added to this situation: productivity viewed as the most efficient use of resources. in this context, the Colombian state has been betting on mass propagation without considering quality. this is clearly evident in the policies for financing higher education in the public sphere, which prod institutions into a competition to increase their coverage as though quality were a natural result of this process. the aim is to compare Colombian higher education with other more developed countries in the region, under the supposition that they have similar characteristics, but forgetting that cultural differences are a relevant factor in implementing changes. in a country with low levels of fairness and high levels of corruption, public education will always be a necessary factor for social leveling. the only way to eliminate public education without adverse effects on society is to achieve greater fairness and zero corruption. this is a fallacy for our country unless there is a huge cultural change and values that would help to change mental ideals are cultivated.

A new law on education is no good if it merely focuses on patching fiscal holes in the public universities, and above all if it fails to clearly determine the educational model for the next 20 years, as a tipping point that could improve quality and thereby eliminate incentives leading to accepting corruption and inevitably participating in it.

 

Edison Jair Duque-Oliva

Editor in chief – innovar

Fulltime Professor Universidad Nacional de Colombia