The 2013 WISE Prize was given to Vicky Colbert in recognition of her work to educate underprivileged children in poor rural areas of Colombia. Using a hands-on approach to learning, the Escuela Nueva educational model has led to dramatic improvements in Colombia’s educational system. Since it was first introduced in rural Colombia in 1975, this model has been adapted to benefit more than 5 million children in 16 countries.
Colbert is a Colombian sociologist who co-founded the Escuela Nueva program in 1975 in collaboration with Beryl Levinger and Óscar Mogollόn. Initially, this educational model was developed to improve the quality of education provided in Colombia’s rural schools. These schools were plagued by high dropout and grade repetition rates, inadequate training of teachers, insufficient teaching supplies, and a lack of support from their communities.
To address these concerns, Escuela Nueva utilizes hands-on strategies to improve school curricula and classrooms, teacher training, relationships with communities, and management techniques. Students learn at their own pace by working on different modules in a small group setting. This approach teaches children learning, leadership, teamwork and decision-making skills that will benefit them later in life.
This model proved so effective in Colombia’s rural schools that the government chose to adopt it as national educational policy in 1980. As a result, rural schools regularly outperform urban schools throughout the country and Colombia’s primary education system has become one of the best in all of Latin America. With these dramatic results, Escuela Nueva gained international recognition even before the WISE Awards with praise from UNESCO, the World Bank and the Human Development Report issued by the United Nations.
Sheikh Abdulla bin Ali Al-Thani, chairman of the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), praised Vicky Colbert saying she “has dedicated her life to revitalising education…Her work has had a significant impact in Latin America and beyond, greatly expanding access to affordable quality education for the less-privileged.”
The Qatar Foundation established WISE in 2009 as a platform for discussing new approaches to education. The WISE Prize for Education has been awarded at the discretion of an international jury since 2011 in recognition of meaningful contributions to education taking place internationally.
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Written by Amanda Lubit