Achievement evaluation of Colombia's Escuela Nueva : is multigrade the answer?

In the mid 1980s, half of Colombia's rural schools did not offer complete primary education and more than half of rural children between the ages of 7 and 9 had never attended school. Unitary schools - multigrade classrooms taught by one teacher - were established in the early 1960s in isolated rural areas with few students. However, when efforts were made to expand the program nationally several problems became apparent - with teacher training, with the automatic promotion system, and with the relevance of course content to rural life. Escuela Nueva was created in 1976 as an official improvement on the unitary school. By 1989 enrollment increased to 17,948 schools, serving 800,000 students. Escuela Nueva is a rural school in which one or two teachers offer all five years of primary education in or two multigrade classrooms. Promotion is flexible, but not automatic. Special instruction materials are used which encourage the practical application of what is learned to life in a rural community. The system supports peer instruction, with older students coaching younger ones. The schools have study corners focused on different subject areas and a small library that also functions as a community information center. Many activities are designed to involve parents in support of their child's learning. The authors found that Escuela Nueva had significantly improved student outcomes, community participation as well as reducing dropout rates.