This work studies the effect of the presence of coca crops on the academic performance of students during the years 2012 to 2017 in Colombian municipalities. As a measure of academic performance, the score of the math and language subjects in SABER 5, 9 and 11 tests are used. It is found that the presence of coca crops has a negative effect on academic performance, and that these effects vary by age of the students and by type of test. As an explanation for these results, it is proposed that the presence of hectares cultivated with coca could generate a high demand for unskilled labor, causing a trade-off between studying and working in adolescent students, thus generating a lack of academic motivation, which would be reflected in poor academic performance. The results found are robust to the inclusion of fixed effects by municipality, year and controls for conflict, displacement and homicides.