For the first time, Colombia is in a position to comply with the article of her constitution which guarantees a primary education to all citizens. The country now has the technical, political and financial conditions necessary to universalize primary education, particularly in rural areas where low coverage and inefficiency of the system have persisted over decades. In effect, the technical conditions are guaranteed in the New School Programme, designed and tested during a 14-year period, and already implemented in 17,000 schools throughout the country, reaching 900,000 children. Current government policies have provided the necessary political conditions. Financial conditions have been created through the allocation of government resources, a loan from the World Bank, and from UNICEF's cooperation to maintain the quality of the New School Programme as it is implemented on a full scale basis. The first section of this document summarizes the qualitative and quantitative deficiencies of primary education in rural areas. The second section outlines the attempts to provide better opportunities for schooling of rural children. The third section describes the components of the New School Programme and the innovations devised in the process going to full scale. The fourth section presents the main findings of a comprehensive evaluation of the Programme and discusses major concerns for replication in other countries. (RH)