Oscar Mogollon

Oscar Mogollón Jaimes was an education visionary of the late 20th century who pioneered the Escuela Nueva model and the Active school approach, educational models that have been used to improve the quality of education of the poorest children around the world.

Mogollón was born in the city of Pamplona, Colombia where he studied Psychopedagogy at the University of Pamplona. Mogollón pioneered the creation of Escuela Nueva and the Active schools approach, which are successful educational models that expanded throughout Colombia, Latin America, and Africa. Mogollón devoted his entire life to creating new ways of improving the quality of education of the poorest children in the most impoverished rural communities. His ideas and educational models changed the lives of millions of children around the world. Mogollón died of cancer in 2009, but his educational models are still widely used by international organizations around the world.

Mogollón was a pedagogue that started his career as a teacher in rural Colombia in 1964. He managed to take into practice the principles of Active school and he proved that it was possible to deliver a better quality of education to the children of the most impoverished areas. By his own initiative, Mogollón organized the teachers of more than 100 schools to build and develop strategies together that would change the conditions of education in Colombia. Later in 1976, with Vicky Colbert and Beryl Levinger, created Escuela Nueva, which has been key in the improvement of education in Latin America.

Mogollón held important positions within the Ministry of National Education (Colombia), and kept developing methodologic strategies to improve quality of education. Having been a teacher himself, Oscar knew that a successful school required successful teachers, so he formed a work force of competent teachers able to attend the diverse problems of the rural school. He also created teacher´s circles, where teachers helped other teachers build their knowledge and where everyone shared their thoughts. He found new ways to keep track of the teachers work, he encouraged the visits of inspectors and technical support, but not to control the teachers, but to support them in their work, he called this "acompañamiento pedagogico" or educational support. With this idea, the teachers in the most remote geographical areas started to feel the need of networking with the outside world, to be able to share their doubts and get some feedback on their work. He also motivated guided teacher internships, in which the teachers were able to see examples of how other schools solved the same problems. This was also an opportunity to generate new ways of teaching and learning.

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