Taken from UNESCO, 2011

Government expenditures on education in Colombia were very minimal until around the late 1960s. The 1960s-1980s saw a significant increase in government funding for education, especially at the primary level (The Country Studies Program, 1999.) As is evident in the two charts, expenditures drastically increased in the 80s and have been steadily increasing as a percentage of GDP ever since.

However, expenses as a percentage of total government expenditures has been on the decline since the 80s. Nevertheless, as of 2011, 14.9% of all government spending (4.4% of GDP) goes to the education sector.  36% to both primary and secondary education, 21% to the tertiary system, and only 6% to pre-primary schooling (UNESCO, 2011.)  This could possible explain the aforementioned low percentages of matriculation at both the pre-primary level and the tertiary level.

References:

1. UNICEF. (2008). Education statistics: Colombia . Retrieved from http://www.childinfo.org/files/LAC_Colombia.pdf

2. UNESCO (2011). Uis statistics in brief: Colombia general profile. Retrieved from http://stats.uis.unesco.org/unesco/TableViewer/document.aspx?ReportId=121&IF_Language=en&BR_Country=1700

3. Country Studies Program (1988-1999). Colombia- society . Retrieved from http://www.mongabay.com/reference/country_studies/colombia/SOCIETY.html