Colombia’s Education Crisis: Results from a Learning Assessment of Colombian and Venezuelan Children

With support from the Tinker Foundation, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) conducted a learning assessment in the city of Cúcuta to better understand these challenges and shine a light on children’s needs. This study sought to answer on a set of key questions:

• What are the literacy, numeracy and social-emotional learning (SEL) skills of Venezuelan children in Cúcuta?
• How do these compare to the skills of their Colombian counterparts?
• How do the literacy, numeracy and SEL skills of Colombians and Venezuelans vary by different sub-groups of children by schooling status, age, sex, disability, and socio-economic status?

This brief will discuss several of the key findings from this assessment to illustrate the extent to which schooling, or lack thereof, is impacting children’s outcomes in Colombia.