Colombian Students Risk Not Graduating After Registration Error

An administrative oversight has placed 38 eleventh-grade students at the Miguel Sánchez Hinestroza school in Girón, Colombia, in jeopardy of not graduating. The students were reportedly not registered for the crucial ICFES (Saber 11) exams, scheduled for August 13, despite parents having paid the 72,000 pesos registration fee per student.

Parents insist they submitted the payments on time, totaling 2,736,000 pesos, but discovered just a week before the exam locations were to be announced that their children were not listed in the system. This situation is particularly distressing for students who rely on these exams for scholarship opportunities and university admissions, as failing to take the ICFES exams prevents graduation.

The school's rector traveled to Bogotá to meet with Ministry of Education officials, seeking a resolution. The Girón municipal education secretary, Adela Silva, confirmed the issue and announced an investigation into the administrative error. Silva explained that while the school pre-registered the students, it failed to make the payment within the national deadlines.

Despite immediate action by the education secretary's office upon learning of the problem on July 17, Silva stated that it was impossible to reverse the process due to the short time remaining before the exams. She expressed regret for the administrative error and acknowledged the significant concern, frustration, and uncertainty faced by the affected students and their families.