School in Colombia: compulsory from 5 to 15, and first have the school years recognised

In Colombia a child must go to school from 5 to 15. The constitution says so in article 67: education is compulsory at that age and covers at least one year of preescolar, pre-school, and nine years of educación básica. At a state school it is free, although the school may charge fees to parents who can afford them.

If your child has already done school years in the Netherlands, you have them recognised by the Ministerio de Educación Nacional (MEN). This is called the convalidación. With it the school enrols your child in the right year.

What	Deadline or amount	Source
Compulsory education	from 5 to 15	Constitution, art. 67
State school	free, with possible fees for those who can pay	Constitution, art. 67
Pre-school (preescolar)	at least 1 compulsory year	Ley 115, art. 11
Basic education (básica)	9 years: 5 primaria, 4 secundaria	Ley 115, art. 11
Educación media	2 years, the 10th and 11th, with the bachiller diploma	Ley 115, art. 27 and 28
Recognition of school years	free, decision within 15 working days, extendable by 15	MEN
Additional documents after a request	within 30 days, otherwise the file closes	MEN
Dutch child benefit	stops if the child lives outside the Netherlands, except in the EU	AKW, art. 7b

What does the Colombian school system look like?

The education law, Ley 115 of 1994, has three levels. The preescolar with at least one compulsory year. The educación básica of nine years, in two parts: five years of primaria and four years of secundaria. And the educación media of two years, the 10th and 11th. Whoever completes it gets the bachiller diploma, which gives access to higher education.

The curriculum is built on Spanish. The law names reading, understanding, writing and speaking in the lengua castellana as a goal of primary school, and foreign languages as one of the subjects.

How do you have Dutch school years recognised?

You apply for the convalidación online with the MEN; you do not need to go in person. There are two kinds: for individual years (estudios parciales) and for a final diploma (título de bachiller). The MEN asks for:

• the reports or statements for each year you want recognised, recognised by the education authority in the Netherlands;
• an apostille on those documents;
• an official translation into Spanish;
• your child's passport.

The MEN compares the years with the Colombian system and decides in a ruling which year they correspond to. You take that ruling and the reports to the school. It must enrol your child in the matching year and help with whatever is still missing.

The apostille goes on the signature of a public official, not on that of the school. A Dutch diploma or transcript is first legalised by DUO and then apostilled at the court; DUO returns it within three weeks. Start before you leave. Whether DUO also does this for primary school reports is something to check with DUO.

If you cannot get the documents with an apostille, the MEN points to a way out: a school that meets the requirements may test the child free of charge and so validate the years.