With over two million people displaced by armed conflict, Colombia has one of world’s largest internally displaced migrant populations.

A 2006 report by the Attorney General of Colombia estimated that 73% of displaced children between 5 and 17 years of age are excluded from the educational system. National and international efforts have allowed for survival of displaced peoples, with little focus on getting children back in school.
 
Children displaced from their home typically stay out of school for numerous years and live in marginalized areas with extreme violence. In response to this national crisis, in 2001, the Escuela Nueva Foundation analyzed the situation of children affected by emergencies and displacement in Colombia. Based on the principles and child-centered pedagogy of the proven Escuela Nueva educational model, the Escuela Nueva Learning Circles Program™ was developed to meet the special needs of this group of children.

The Learning Circles™ program provides quality education to boys and girls between 6 and 15 years of age who have been displaced from their home and are not in school. Anchored in the Escuela Nueva-Escuela Activa learning model, the program addresses the specific needs and vulnerabilities of displaced children and children in emergencies.

The conventional school fails to adapt to the situation of vulnerable children. The Escuela Nueva Learning Circles™ program facilitates the transition of displaced and migrant children to school and helps keep them in school. The program:

• Improves self-esteem
• Restores confidence
• Builds positive emotions towards learning
• Teaches conflict resolution skills
• Develops tools for peaceful coexistence and social integration.

Escuela Nueva Learning Circles ™are places of learning located within local communities, comprised of groups of between 12 and 15 students that work together with the aid of a “youth tutor” who facilitates learning and provides personalized attention. They operate off-site from mainstream, formal “mother schools”, but are officially linked to them through shared academic calendars, grading systems and extracurricular programs. Children are officially enrolled in the “mother school”, but study in these Learning Circles ™ and receive classes in community centers, local churches, and family homes until they are prepared to transfer to the “mother school.” This Program is not a parallel system; it is integrated into and recognized by the Ministry of Education to ease the transition from the streets to school.

Convinced of the potential of this new methodology, the Escuela Nueva Foundation (ENF) persuaded USAID to fund the first pilot project in the commune of Altos de Cazucá in Soacha in 2003. The Ministry of Education of Colombia and the International Organization for Migrants also supported this initiative.