Two things about teaching Colombian families from Nairobi, and I would rather lead with the harder one. We are eight hours ahead, which means a Colombian after-school slot at four in the afternoon is midnight here. The supplementary model that works across our European and African markets does not transfer as-is. What does work is our teaching block landing in the Colombian morning — and, as in Mexico, the Colombian school day happens to make that unusually workable.
The gap, and the one direction that works
Eight hours, fixed — Colombia does not observe daylight saving and neither does Kenya, so nothing drifts seasonally. That gap runs one way usefully: our teaching hours land in the Colombian morning. A class at seven in the morning in Bogotá is three in the afternoon in Nairobi, an ordinary teaching slot. Anything later in the Colombian day is evening or night here. So the question is never whether a family wants morning classes; it is whether their child’s mornings are free.
Why the jornada system answers that
Colombian schools commonly operate jornada mañana and jornada tarde — morning and afternoon shifts. A student in jornada tarde attends school in the afternoon and has mornings entirely free, which is precisely our window. For those families an eight-hour gap stops being an obstacle and becomes an ordinary timetable: our classes in the morning, school in the afternoon, homework in the evening. Add full-time and post-compulsory students who take mornings anyway, and there is a substantial Colombian cohort for whom this works cleanly. For jornada mañana students it usually does not, and we say so at enquiry rather than in March.
What an examined track adds to a bilingual market
Colombia has a very large calendario B bilingual sector and a strong international tier in Bogotá and Medellín. The distinction that matters at university application is between bilingual schooling and an internationally examined qualification: a student can finish a good bilingual school fluent, confident, and holding the Colombian record alone, which every foreign university then equivalence-assesses. Cambridge IGCSEs and A-Levels sit alongside that and are read directly. A-Level provision here is also thinner than bilingual provision, which matters specifically for UCAS.
Validation is a separate service, and worth distinguishing
Colombia has a real market of home-education providers offering validation support — helping families through validación por grados under Decreto 2832 de 2005, or the single-examination bachillerato route under Decreto 299 de 2009 for those over eighteen. That is a genuinely useful service and it is not what we do. We are live teaching: qualified subject specialists, small groups, Cambridge and IB examinations. The two are often conflated in this market, and a family should know which one they are buying. Where a family wants both, the validation runs through authorised Colombian institutions and ICFES while our calendar runs alongside.
The cities the tier does not reach
Bogotá and Medellín hold most of the provision. Cali is Colombia’s third city with a substantial agro-industrial economy and less international schooling than its scale implies. Barranquilla runs the Caribbean’s industrial belt a flight from the capital. Cartagena carries a refinery and petrochemical complex beside an international tourism economy, with a short school list for either. In each, live delivery is not competing with a campus so much as reaching where campuses are not.
And where the local school is the right answer
A Colombian child in jornada mañana at a good bilingual school, heading toward a Colombian university through Saber 11, does not need us — and I would rather say so than sell around an eight-hour timezone. Our value is narrow and real: an examined international track in a bilingual market, subject sets a timetable cannot staff, reach into Cali and the coast, and a morning window that matches half the country’s school day. Where none of that applies, the local school will serve a child well.
Frequently Asked Questions
Eight hours — does this actually work?+
In one direction. Classes are available across the day, including after-school, because we run two teaching teams in different time zones. For students in jornada tarde, whose school runs in the afternoon, mornings are free and it works cleanly. For jornada mañana students it usually does not, and we say so at enquiry.
Do you handle Colombian validación?+
No — that runs through authorised Colombian institutions and ICFES, and there are Colombian providers who specialise in supporting it. We are live teaching toward Cambridge and IB examinations. Families who want both run the two calendars alongside each other.
Our child is at a bilingual school — what would we gain?+
An internationally examined qualification. Bilingual schooling gives fluency; universities abroad assess qualifications. Cambridge IGCSEs and A-Levels are read directly rather than equivalence-assessed.
Is homeschooling legal in Colombia?+
Colombian sources disagree and we set out both readings rather than picking one. Confirm your position with the Ministerio de Educación Nacional and your secretaría de educación.
