In 1999, the newly elected mayor of Bogotá, Enrique Peñalosa, launched his educational concession model with a very clear idea: “The level of education of the lower strata determines the future capabilities of those young people.” This is how Pablo Navas, president of the Superior Council of the University of the Andes from 1997 to 2003 and founder of the private school Los Nogales, recalls it.
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“Could it be true?” Navas wondered; “Is the mayor right?” With that question in mind, he proposed to José Antonio Lloreda, from the board of Los Nogales, to look for Cecilia María Vélez, then Secretary of Education of the District, to present alternatives. In response, they faced a challenge: “We are going to put schools under concession, why don’t you take on one?” she proposed to them.
“We accepted the challenge,” Navas replied, “but not just us.” An industrial engineer from Cornell University and Master in Administration from the University of the Andes, this visionary detected an unprecedented opportunity to demonstrate that the alliance between the public and private sectors could offer first-class education at all economic levels.
To achieve this, he gathered the best possible team: Carlos Angulo, then rector of the University of the Andes; Father Francis Wehri, rector of San Carlos school; and Barry McComb, director of Nueva Granada (replaced years later by Gimnasio La Montaña). “We were lucky that Leopoldo González, who had been rector of Gimnasio Moderno, agreed to be the leader of Alianza Educativa,” Navas recounts.
The four of them structured the curricula and applied to the first call, in 2000. They were awarded four institutions in this call, and in the second, the next seven. In this way, Alianza Educativa, a non-profit organization, became one of the most notable cases of public-private cooperation in the country. Its leader-managers were responsible for designing the academic and coexistence curricula in those institutions.
Alianza currently manages the schools Miravalle, La Giralda, Santiago de las Atalayas, Argelia, Las Margaritas, Jaime Garzón, Jorge Isaacs, Laurel de Cera, Parques de Bogotá, Ciudad Chengdú, and El Nogal, in the localities of Bosa, Kennedy, Usme, Ciudad Bolívar, and Santa Fe. In the scheme, the State provides the physical infrastructure, equipment, and financing, and they provide the knowledge.
“Initially, we tried to make the curriculum much more precise, not so flexible, but rather clear in learning objectives. Secondly, there is specialized training and professional development of the teacher, and thirdly, the promotion of socio-emotional skills,” says Raquel Bernal, rector of the University of the Andes. That is the “secret ingredient of Coca-Cola,” she says, the crux of the matter: training teachers so that students are the best. They are not only instructed from a pedagogical point of view but also in interpersonal skills, leadership, and coexistence.
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Thus, this “teacher school” trains them to work with young people and their environments. “We don’t enroll children, we enroll families,” says Diana Paola Basto, general director of the initiative. This gives them an edge over other professionals, as they not only learn the technical management of classrooms but also how to moderate conflicts and generate support that goes beyond the classrooms. “These are very rigorous training processes that guide us and give us tools to strengthen the daily work of coexistence. I have hardly seen this in other organizations, as they prioritize academics,” says Daniela Ospina González, coexistence coordinator at Colegio Las Margaritas.
In this regard, the school principal, Slenny Silva, states that Navegar Seguro, the Alianza Educativa program designed to develop socio-emotional skills, has allowed her to get closer to the community. So much so that with this strategy, Las Margaritas reduced serious conflicts in the institution by 85% and, in the process, ranked in the top 10 of the World’s Best School Prizes 2026, in the “Fostering Healthy Lives” category by T4 Education.
But there is another figure that makes Silva even prouder: in the six years of operation, not a single case of teenage pregnancy has occurred. “This approach tells us that just as academics are important, so is being. And if we have that balance, we will have successful students,” she says.
The results of Alianza Educativa endorse its success. After 26 years, they have managed to place nine schools in the highest categories of the ICFES ranking: two in A+ and seven in A. Also, only one student out of 11,858 has dropped out of their classrooms. By 2025, 88.8% of graduates continued their post-secondary education, above the averages of the capital and the country. In light of these milestones, the Congress of the Republic awarded it the Order of Democracy this year.
“It’s curious because this was born as a coverage strategy; we were guaranteeing it, with a commitment to high quality, of course. That is why, in part, the results are impressive,” says Diana Paola Basto. More than as a plan to close gaps, the idea actually arose from an almost personal challenge of its founders.
Despite the good results, Alianza still has external and internal challenges to overcome. For example, the decline in birth rates affects enrollment levels, teacher salaries are not as competitive compared to those paid directly by the district, and the number of schools under concession is limited by current regulations. However, Raquel Bernal, Diana Basto, and Slenny Silva agree that this “teacher school,” which has already trained more than 500 teachers, can be one of the paths toward a better future for new generations, one in which, as Pablo Navas says, “talent is born, develops, and flourishes with everyone’s support.”
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