Are We Prepared for Colombian School Students to Learn Through Competencies?

Abstract

This document aims to initiate reflection among teachers, school administrators, and education leaders, encouraging a detailed analysis of the potential to improve the quality of basic and secondary education in Colombia. The central focus is on shifting the education system toward a student-centered approach, recognizing the student as a social being and a 21st-century citizen. Most of today’s teachers in Colombia were themselves educated under the industrial-age model, a system that originated in former Germany—specifically Prussia—and spread rapidly around the world due to its practicality. The core goal of the Industrial Revolution was mass production with minimal investment. This same strategy was adopted in schools worldwide: the goal was to produce the largest number of obedient citizens, ready to work efficiently at low cost (Paula, 2014). As a result, the current generation of teachers were trained to be obedient individuals who viewed their instructors as "sages" possessing all knowledge, which they simply transferred to students. This approach reflects John Locke's theory of the human mind as a "blank slate" (tabula rasa), where learners passively absorb knowledge imparted by educators (Morrison, 2005).