In Colombia, the National Ministry of Education established the "Basic Standards of Competence" (EBC, for the Spanish acronym), a guide on what students are expected to learn in different subject areas. These standards also provide guidelines on quality and evaluation in Basic and Middle Education, specifying by grade groups (1st to 3rd, 4th to 5th, 6th to 7th, 8th to 9th, and 10th to 11th) the level of quality to be achieved.

The EBC, in addition to specifying the levels of quality of education to which students have the right to access, allows the evaluation and design of the curriculum by educational institutions, texts, and educational methodologies oriented to meeting these standards.

Moreover, the official standards provide common criteria for external evaluations, which permit the observation and updating of educational strategies that elicit improvements in the learning and performance of students and educational institutions.

https://www.mineducacion.gov.co/1759/w3-article-340021.html?_noredirect=1
https://www.mineducacion.gov.co/1621/articles-340021_recurso_1.pdf

Additionally, in 2015 the Ministry of Education developed the “Basic Learning Rights” (DBA, for the Spanish acronym), which make explicit the main learning goals for each grade. The DBAs were carried out in coherence with the Curricular Guidelines and the EBC. Their difference primarily lies in the specificity of the subject areas by grade, which serves as a baseline for teachers and students. That said, the DBAs do not constitute by themselves a curricular proposal; they are an input requiring articulation with approaches, methodologies, and contexts of each educational institution and its Institutional Educational Projects (PEI, for the Spanish acronym).
The DBAs have become the object of analysis and reflection by the educational community in round tables throughout the country, creating an intended Design Cycle for DBAs to ensure more applicable resources for schools. Following this Design Cycle, a second version of the the mathematics’ DBAs was created.

http://aprende.colombiaaprende.edu.co/sites/default/files/naspublic/DBA_Matem%C3%A1ticas.pdf

Prof. Laura Gómez Bermeo,
ICMI Country Representative
October 2021