Welcome to Colegio Bolivar!

With world–class standards, Colegio Bolivar is at the forefront of bilingual education, technology, and resources. Colegio Bolivar is a private, non–denominational, American – style school located in Colombia’s third largest city, which has 2.5 million habitants. Founded in 1947 to serve the dependents of expatriate personnel assigned to Cali, the school’s population has shifted over the years from a majority of expatriate students to a majority of Colombian nationals, made up for the most part of dependents from multinational businesses, faculty members, alumni, and Cali’s business community.

Our community, including nearly 1,400 students, is divided into four academic sections: Preprimary (including the Early Childhood Center, El Nido), Primary, Middle, and High School. Each is led by its own principal and has its own faculty and facilities. The school, whose primary language of instruction is English, is college preparatory, with almost 99% of our graduates continuing onto higher education in Colombia and abroad.

Located on a thirty-five acres campus at the foothills of the Andes, Colegio Bolivar consists of ten classroom blocks, a science building, a library/media center, an auditorium, a gymnasium, a semi-Olympic pool, an instructional pool, a cafeteria, an administration area, several athletic fields, and a great deal of open space. Cali’s ideal weather allows for the unusual feature of truly “open” classrooms: the rooms themselves have only three walls, with the fourth open to the outdoors! The campus, with its lush landscape, flower gardens, and mountain views, is one of the most beautiful in Latin America.

Accreditation

Colegio Bolivar has been accredited since 1961 by Cognia/AdvancED. With a history and experience dating back to 1895, a leader in its field for nearly four decades, Cognia is a global nonprofit organization that provides accreditation and certification, assessment, professional learning, and improvement services to education entities in more than 85 countries and serves 36,000 institutions, 25 million students and five million educators every day.

During the 2018 – 2019 school year, Colegio Bolivar received international reaccreditation by AdvancED, now Cognia. This process is carried out in cycles every five (5) years. Our institution was highly recognized for significant developments in our pedagogy and our clear alignment with the implementation of our Strategic Plan through 2022. 

Our reaccreditation visit is scheduled for October 2023 and we are in the process of developing the school’s next Strategic Plan.