The exams took place between Saturday, July 6 and Sunday, the 14th of the same month in 2024.
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On Tuesday, June 18, 2024, the Colombian Institute for the Evaluation of Education (Icfes) shared the strategy with which it hopes to train young people from the department of Chocó to seek an improvement in the results of state tests.
According to the information shared by Icfes, more than 120 11th grade students and teachers from the municipality of Unguía, Chocó, were trained through the Saber + strategy.
The purpose of the training was to familiarize students with the type of questions they will find in the Saber 11 exam , as part of Icfes' initiatives to close educational gaps in different regions of the country.
In this regard, the general director of Icfes, Elizabeth Blandón Bermúdez, said that the entity's objective is to "contribute to closing gaps and eliminating barriers that less favored communities in the country face in accessing quality education."
Blandón also highlighted the importance of “building alliances that allow the implementation of actions to improve education in all corners of the country,” given that this initiative is part of the Icfes strategy with the regions, which seeks to reach remote areas and reinforce the preparation of students from grade 10 with the Pre Saber tests.
The impact of this strategy in Unguía was highlighted by various actors in the local educational community such as, for example, the mayor of Unguía, Marlon Niño, who spoke of the importance of this type of actions by the entities, given that they allow them young people from remote regions understand the tools to achieve an outstanding result that will benefit them in their academic future.
“It is extremely important that Icfes is here, because they give us the necessary tools; since in our municipality we do not have this preparation in time and our young people are leaving with bad grades in the Saber tests. We must use the tool that the national government is giving us and believe me, we requested it and we are very grateful to this entity,” said the mayor.
For his part, Daimar Palacios, a grade 11 student at the Unguía Agricultural Educational Institution, commented on the relevance of the training received by describing it as “excellent, because it is something that allows us to learn something that had never been seen years ago. And it serves us a lot. And we are preparing for later at the time of the Icfes tests.” Palacios emphasized the importance of these tools in their academic preparation and the ability to better face the Saber 11 tests.
In addition, Ana Puertas, Secretary of Social Welfare of the municipality, highlighted this initiative as a significant opportunity for remote territories, emphasizing the importance of having this type of resources that allow academic training and improve the results of students in the national assessments.
“This remote area of the deep Colombia that our President speaks about. We have access to the platforms and all the information that students need to prepare, to take the tests and thus achieve the good scores that we need in the territory to manage actions in education,” the official added.
The Saber + strategy is part of a larger effort by Icfes to improve education in less favored regions, offering tools and resources that make it easier for students to achieve better performance on national tests. This initiative not only covers training in the type of questions and the use of the platform, but also seeks to create a long-term positive impact on the educational quality of these territories.