This paper shows a wide picture of the educational sector in Colombia with emphasis on public education. The paper starts off with a brief description of the main policy measures implemented during the last decades, which is then followed by a detailed evaluation of the norms on educational decentralisation as well as those ruling the teaching profession in the country. The paper evaluates the recent performance of some sectoral indicators on public expenditure, coverage, efficiency and quality; also, it analyses the scheme of remuneration and incentives facing teachers. In recent years, the analysis of the behaviour of sectoral indicators suggests that government policy on education has mainly focused on the increase in coverage rather than on the improvement in quality.