Attention students: from April 18 to 21, the Saber 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th Tests will be applied

In recent hours, the Ministry of National Education and the Colombian Institute for the Evaluation of Education (Icfes) announced that Saber Tests for grades 3, 5, 7 and 9 will be held between April 18 and 21.

This year the test will be applied to 200,000 students from 1,300 educational venues selected in the country's 32 departments.

“I am grateful for the support of rectors who work permanently for the community and I call on them to work this month to work on carrying out the Saber Tests 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th under the paper and pencil modality, remember that the virtual component was held the previous year,” said the Minister of Education, María Victoria Angulo.

He added that with these tests it will be possible to identify where these educational challenges lie in the country and serve as an input to design a policy closer to what each region and each educational establishment requires.

For her part, the director general of Icfes, Mónica Ospina Londoño, warned that the institution wants to “leave a structured process in the country with the creation of a baseline for the monitoring of complete school trajectories from primary to middle school and thus consolidate one of the essential components of the continuous improvement of the quality of education in Colombia”.

The official also recalled that the children and adolescents who will take these Saber Tests 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th of primary and secondary basic education, are those who are studying grades 4, 6, 8 and 10 this year.

On what these tests will evaluate, the director of Icfes clarified that, “in this new cycle and baseline of Saber 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th Tests, in addition to evaluating different areas of knowledge, we will obtain complementary information about the development of socio-emotional skills and some associated factors that are related and may be with an emphasis on the development of students' competencies”.

Thus, according to the ministry, the students who will be evaluated will present tests related to communication skills in language, reading and mathematics. And for fifth, seventh and ninth students they will present tests in natural sciences and environmental education, citizen thinking and, finally, communicative skills in language with a writing test.

MINEducation and Icfes noted that three auxiliary questionnaires will also be applied in order to collect socioeconomic information, associated factors and socio-emotional skills of students. Teachers and group leaders must also submit the second questionnaire mentioned above.

Icfes also clarified that the educational institutions that will participate in the tests were selected from a sample, since representation was sought according to the nature of the Educational Institution (official, unofficial) and its location (urban, rural), among other characteristics.

In this regard, the Ministry of Education commented that, “because it is a sample and controlled test, with national and regional representation, a general report will be published in 2022 and there will be no results at the educational institution level”.

Additionally, this application envisaged a sample design that would allow the generation of estimates at the department level.

Finally, the application of three auxiliary questionnaires is also contemplated, whose objective is to collect information: socioeconomic, associated factors and socio-emotional abilities of students. Teachers, Headquarters Teaching Managers and Principals will also submit a questionnaire of associated factors.

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