To understand the factors that inhibit or favor the academic performance and permanence of students in educational institutions that provide their service in dispersed rural areas of Colombia, an essential situation to improve academic performance and at the same time ensure that students make their successful transition through the different educational levels because for the comprehensive formation of a person and the development of all their skills, competencies, attitudes and potential aptitudes, as well as learning for coexistence and social life, it is required that the student carry out their entire academic and training process. According to the literature studied, it shows that the factors that directly affect their academic performance, and the permanence of students in educational institutions are four: the first of them are aspects directly related to the person who learns, second with the family environment, the third with aspects of the educational institutions and the fourth, which has to do with the environment where the student develops. Since educational institutions are open systems made up of several subsystems, education is a process permeated by each of the subsystems that make up the institution (students, context, families, educational staff). In addition, it can be established that the same factors that influence the low academic performance of students are present in school dropouts, therefore, a student with low academic performance is more likely to drop out of the educational system.