In the late 1980s, Medellín was one of the most violent cities in the world. Drug cartels controlled the area, and people huddled in their homes to avoid the chaos of the streets. The murder rate was sky-high even for young people. Over the past ten years, as the cartel's grip has loosened, life has return to relative normal in this beautiful city. In the last eight years, in fact, only one out of 23,000 students was killed because of drug-trafficking violence.
The administration attributes this improvement to a greater focus on education as well as to better political leadership. Many of the politicians who are currently in power are not career politicians but former professors and professionals. Also, amazingly, 60 percent of the department's budget goes toward public education.
Because of this financial dedication to education, the quality of public schools in the department has improved vastly, with higher graduation rates (40 to 60 percent depending on the district) and greater access to pre-school education. There is also a new program in place to reincorporate former dropouts into career-training centers.
There is still overwhelming inequality in the department, with many people still living in extreme poverty. Also, there are still students who choose the path of working for drug cartels rather than pursue higher education and respectable careers. And while the literacy rate is improving in Medellín, there are still many illiterate displaced people escaping to Medellín from violence in rural areas in the country.
One of the administration's future desires is to invest the entire education budget to train teachers. There are 18,000 teachers in Antioquia. Only 32 of those have master's degrees. Many teachers are unmotivated, behind in technology, and poorly prepared. The ones who are excelling do not receive the social recognition they deserve.
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