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The Chilean Education System: Between Expansion and Inequality
Chapter · January 2021

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-93443-3_4-1
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The Chilean Education System
Between Expansion and Inequality
Cristina Alarcón López and Alejandra Falabella
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2 Historic and Social Foundations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.1 General Historical Background: Guiding Principles, Path Dependencies, and Main
Reforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2 Political, Economic, and Cultural Contexts and Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.3 Social Conditions: Provision/Coverage of Population . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.4 Transition to Employment Market: Organization and Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3 Institutional and Organizational Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.1 General Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.2 Educational Administration and Governance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.3 Structure of the Education System According to ISCED-Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.4 Provision of Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4 Educational Trends and Highlighted Aspects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.1 Performance Gap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.2 ICT and Digitalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4.3 STEM Subjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.4 Emerging Issues Since 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
5 Conclusions: Achievements, Challenges, and Winds of Transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Abstract
The chapter aims to provide an up-to-date and fundamental description of the
Chilean education system, with respect to its historical and social foundations,
and taking into consideration its political, economic, and cultural determinants. It
C. Alarcón López (*)

Institut für Bildungswissenschaft, Universität Wien, Wien, Österreich
e-mail: cristina.alarcon.lopez@univie.ac.at
A. Falabella
Facultad de Educación, Departamento de Política Educativa y Desarrollo Escolar Erasmo Escala
1825, Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Santiago, Chile
e-mail: afalabel@uahurtado.cl
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 1

S. Jornitz, M. Parreira do Amaral (eds.), The Education Systems of the Americas, Global
Education Systems, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93443-3_4-1
2 C. Alarcón López and A. Falabella
will also provide an overview of the institutional, structural, and organizational

principles of the system, the condition of its personnel, and an analysis of its most
recent political trends and developments. This overview highlights the centralist,
marketized, and privatized nature of the current education system. From a long
perspective, the analysis also shows that despite the achievement of a successful
educational expansion on all levels of the system, marked educational inequality,
segregation, and inequity persists until today. Another important feature,
discussed in the chapter, is that Chile and its education system has been
constructed as a “model,” a “pioneer,” and a “laboratory” both in continental
and global terms since the twenty-first century.
Keywords
Chile · Education system · Expansion · Inequality, Country model
1 Introduction
The main objective in this chapter is to provide a succinct and up-to-date overview of
the Chilean education system, specifically in terms of its structure, organization,
institutions, actors, processes, and practices. Our analysis is focused on the historic,
social, and cultural foundations of the system, by examining its historic develop-
ment, path dependencies and traditions, and considering its specific national features
as well its communalities with other Latin American education systems. Although
we concentrate on primary and secondary education, some references will also be
made to pre-primary and tertiary education. Additionally, we discuss recent educa-
tional policies and trends, as well as the problems and challenges the education
system faces until today as the still existing marked educational inequality, segre-
gation, and inequity, despite the achievement of a successful educational expansion.
Analyzing the Chilean education system also implies knowing a country, which
despite its small size and peripheral geographical location, has become a “model
country.” From the end of the nineteenth century to the last quarter of the twentieth
century, Chile was first built as a continental model of institutional stability, and then
as a model of liberal democracy (Couso 2008). And not only that, Chile has also
been celebrated as a pioneer or world laboratory: First in reference to the project of
democratic socialism during the government of Salvador Allende (1970–1973), then
with respect to the “neoliberal” or radical pro-market reforms during the brutal
military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973–1990), which served as a prelude
to the governments of Margaret Thatcher (United Kingdom) and Ronald Reagan
(USA) and the Washington Consensus, and finally in the 1990s, as a paradigm of a
successful and peaceful transition to democracy (Couso 2008). It is not the aim of
this study to explore the motives and effects of Chile’s status as a model, pioneer, and
laboratory country, but as possible factors we could mention a certain openness to
the world and alignment with the central countries (ibid.), or, from a critical
viewpoint, a problematic cultural and economic dependence from these countries.
The Chilean Education System 3
Overall, the reading of this chapter will not only allow to know the education system
of a specific Latin American country with its converging and diverging features, but
also how the construction and consolidation of that system was a faithful reflection
of global political processes of critical nature.
2 Historic and Social Foundations
In this part we analyze the historical and social determinants of the education system
up until the present by referring to crucial educational reform processes. Afterward
we discuss the political, economic, and cultural determinants of the education system
and outline the social conditions of the population. Finally, we analyze the transition
process from the education system to the employment market.
2.1 General Historical Background: Guiding Principles, Path

Dependencies, and Main Reforms
Chile truly is a country “on the edge of the world,” located on the south-western side
of Latin America, limited to the north by the Atacama desert, to the east by the Andes
mountains, and to the west by the Pacific Ocean. During the period of Spanish
colonial rule, the process of educational institutionalization was, as in the case of
most Latin American countries, controlled exclusively by the Catholic Church and
marked by hierarchy and restriction: while secondary education was given prefer-
ential attention to be provided in distinguished seminaries and secondary schools,
primary education was reduced to a very small number of primary schools, or the so-
called “schools of first letters” (escuelas de primeras letras). In the period of cultural
dynamism resulting from the influence of the Enlightenment, Universidad de San
Felipe was founded in the late eighteenth century.
The process of Chilean independence in the early nineteenth century and the
subsequent formation of the Republic set in motion a series of crucial developments
in education. After the abolition of colonial educational institutions, modern insti-
tutions were founded, such as the National Institute (Instituto Nacional) (1813) for
the secondary education of the new political elites and the Universidad de Chile
(1843), under the leadership of the famous Venezuelan scholar Andrés Bello (1781–
1865). The latter institution was created on the basis of the previous Universidad de
San Felipe (Caruso 2015). During that period, the first state primary teacher training
college (Escuela Normal) was also founded to train primary school teachers.
Due to both the colonial and French influence, the national education system was
built with a centralist structure, which could be defined as the first path dependency
of the Chilean education system. During this period, the school institutions thus
emerged more due to the initiative by the state or the Church and less because of
direct efforts of civil society or local communities or provinces. In addition, the
fledgling republican educational institutions had an elitist, hierarchical, and seg-
mented nature (Labarca 1939). The state’s efforts were focused on the development
of the education of the elites, the university, and the so-called liceos or secondary
schools. These schools, with a humanistic bent, prepared students to enter university.
In contrast, primary education (educación popular), mainly devoted to teaching basic
literacy, was characterized by low territorial penetration and a precarious nature.
Therefore, and as in most Latin American and southern European countries, the
structure of the Chilean education system resembled a two-column model. Each
column served a specific social clientele: one column composed by secondary
schools with their preparatory primary schools and university for the upper classes,
while the other column was comprised of primary schools and primary teacher
training colleges for the general public. There were no connections or official
transitions between the two columns. It should be noted that the building process
of the education system also involved the forced cultural assimilation of various
indigenous peoples (CHM 2015). After these peoples had first been educated by
Catholic missionaries, the state sought to include them into the new national system
(Serrano et al. 2012).
During the nineteenth century, the process of modernization and the formation of
the nation state were marked by an economy oriented toward the exportation of raw
materials. During this period an ideological struggle emerged, which could be
considered as the second path dependency of the Chilean education system: the
conflict between the principle of the teaching state (Estado Docente) versus the
principle of liberty of instruction (libertad de enseñanza). This battle has been waged
between liberal-positivist and conservative forces, the latter in alliance with the
Catholic Church. The principle of the “teaching state” refers to the application of
state sovereignty over private educational institutions, which were mainly under the
authority of the Catholic Church. Specifically, it referred to the idea of a state-
controlled and universal public education system, which should act as the founder
of a national education (Alarcón 2014, 72–80). It was specifically this objective that
was challenged by the Catholic-conservative forces, which defended the principle of
“liberty of instruction,” that is, the right to establish and run private (usually
Catholic) schools, as well as the right to non-state supervision of these schools by
defining their own curriculum (Toro Cáceres 2015, 44–49). The expression of the
principle of the teaching state was, for example, the first attempt to organize a system
of free and public primary schools under the law of primary instruction, passed in
1860.
During the nineteenth century, the schooling of the population was still limited
despite the efforts of the state. In 1852, only 10.27% of the primary school-aged
population was in school (Braun et al. 2000, 238). Thirty years later in 1882, almost
80% of the population was still entirely excluded from primary education (Braun et
al. 2000, 238). The low level of schooling was also reflected in a literacy rate of just
13.5% in 1854 and still only 28.9% in 1885 (Braun et al. 2000, 244).
In the late nineteenth century, within the context of the so-called German educa-
tional reform, there was a hitherto unprecedented expansion of the material, staff,
and technological resources of the education system (Alarcón 2014). The name of
this reform is not only based on the reception of German models, but also on an
unprecedented recruitment of more than 140 German teachers and professors
organized by the state. These teachers and professors would assume teaching and
directing functions at the various public primary teacher training colleges founded
throughout the country during this period, and also at the new Pedagogical Institute
(Instituto Pedagógico), an institution depended from the University de Chile aimed
at academic training of secondary school teachers.
The reform also produced a significant renewal of curricular material and meth-
odologies, in accordance with German models. Another important milestone was the
expansion of the infrastructure of primary and secondary schools and technical
institutes, including institutions designed especially for the female population. It is
worth noting that women’s access to higher education was materialized in 1877
through a law promoted by the liberal Minister of instruction Miguel Luís
Amunátegui – strikingly much earlier than most European countries. The “German
reform” culminated in the enactment of the compulsory primary education law,
which made primary education obligatory for both sexes, as well as free of charge.
From a long-term perspective, this reform also illustrates the third path dependency
of the Chilean education system: the tendency to orientate it toward the world
(France in the first three quarter of the nineteenth century, then Germany during
the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century, and later
the United States in the twentieth century, among others) to legitimize and/or achieve
educational reforms.
The process of structuring, modernizing, and expanding the education system of
Chile continued in the second decade of the twentieth century with the creation of the
Ministry of Education (Ministerio de Educación), which, among other factors,
fortified the centralized features of the system, establishing both its administrative
and pedagogical regulation (Núñez 1993). During that same period, the reception of
progressive curricular and teaching models, mainly of US-American origin, resulted
in the educational experimentation movement for primary and secondary education
(Núñez 1993). Beginning in the 1940s, and within the framework of a nascent
development-oriented economic project aimed at the training of human resources
required by industrialization and urbanization, technical education was strongly
promoted after the creation of a second public university in 1947, the Technical
University of the State (Universidad Técnica del Estado) (Núñez 1993).
2.1.1 Post-World War II Period Until Today
“Revolution in freedom”: Eduardo Frei Montalva Reform (1963–1970)

Starting in the 1960s, the educational strategies in Latin America were marked by the
tension between left-oriented political movements, who followed the mode of
Cuba’s 1959 revolution and technocratic educational reformers with a US-American
influence (Caruso 2015). During this period one important exponent of the
developmentalism project in Chile was the Christian Democrat government of
Eduardo Frei Montalva (1963–1970), known by its slogan of “revolution in free-
dom.” Following the principle of educational planning promoted by the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and financed
by the Alliance for Progress (Alianza para el Progreso), a program of economic,
political, and social aid from the United States for Latin America, the reform
combined developmental theories with American pedagogical and curricular theo-
ries (Bellei and Pérez 2016).
The first major measure involved changing the structure of the education system
by extending common primary education (Bellei and Pérez 2016). The former
scheme of 12 years of education was thus redistributed across two cycles: General
Primary Education, which lasted 8 years, and Secondary Education, with a duration
of 4 years with a scientific-humanist and technical-vocational format. Meanwhile,
within the structure of secondary education, the certificates of secondary education
granted by the scientific-humanist schools (preuniversity schools) and the technical-
vocational schools were officially equated.
The second basic measure was the reform of the curriculum. Inspired by the
teaching principles of the US-American pedagogues Benjamin Bloom and Ralph
Tyler, new objectives and contents were introduced, as well as planning methods and
teaching assessment methods (Bellei and Pérez 2016). The reform also consolidated
the prominent testing culture in the Chilean education system; it thus introduced tests
both as a diagnostic tool for the learning process and as a selection tool by the
creation of the National Assessment Service (Servicio Nacional de Evaluación) in
1967. The main task of this Service was to administer a national standardized test at
the end of the general education period, intended to measure language and mathe-
matical skills. In addition, the traditional baccalaureate was replaced as a university
admission test by the Academic Aptitude Test (Prueba de Aptitud Académica, PAA),
which followed the model of the Scholastic Aptitude Test in the United States
(Alarcón 2015).
A third important measure was the expansion of adult education. Literacy plans
and programs were designed; educational institutions were extended to the primary
and secondary levels, while National Literacy and Educational Recovery Campaigns
(Campañas Nacionales de Alfabetización y Recuperación Educacional) were also
carried out. Therefore, toward the end of the period, the proportion of illiterate
people in the population aged over 14 had decreased by almost a third, falling to
11.7% in 1970 (Bellei and Pérez 2016). Another crucial measure regarding technical
education was the creation of the government-controlled training corporation
National Institute for Professional Training (Instituto Nacional de Capacitación,
INACAP) in 1966.
The Frei reform resulted in an inordinate expansion of education. In fact, the rate
of growth of school and university enrollment during this period was higher than that
seen under all previous governments since 1938 and was more marked at the
secondary level. This rate of growth continued under the socialist government of
Salvador Allende (1970–1973). Indeed, from a broad perspective, the governments
of Frei and Allende were the last governments in the twentieth century that following
the principle of the so-called teaching state, sought to expand and democratize
education through the decisive fortification of public education institutions. From
the cultural point of view, public education was seen not only as the meeting place
for all social classes, including the political, cultural, and scientific elite, but also as
the main disseminator of a common national and civic culture.
Authoritarian and Neoliberal Restructuring (1973–1990)

In international research, the Chilean education system is considered a model of the
implementation of the so-called neoliberal reforms in education (see, for example,
Verger and Bonal 2016). The reason is obvious: it is the country where market-
oriented, liberalization and privatization mechanisms have been introduced most
radically and for the longest time in the world, not only affecting the education
system, but also the health and pension systems, among others. Remarkably, this
“neoliberal” restructuring was carried out in the context of a brutal military dicta-
torship that stifled civil society resistance and thus created the “ideal” laboratory
conditions for its implementation. In fact, the repressive measures would particularly
affect the education system: through military intervention in public schools and
universities; dissolution of educational institutions; censorship and control of cur-
ricular content; the closure of social science and performing art-oriented study
programs (carreras) and research centers, in addition to the systematic persecution,
expulsion, kidnapping, torturing, and/or murder of thousands of students, teachers,
professors, and administrative personnel (Garretón 2007).
The dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973–1990) began with a military coup
against the aforementioned socialist government of Salvador Allende, putting a
definitive end to his main educational project, i.e., the unified national school
(Escuela Nacional Unificada). This project, which was opposed by conservative
sectors of the population, parts of the media, and the Catholic Church, proposed a
permanent and unified system of education that combined elements of general and
polytechnic education, integrated intellectual and productive work, and planned
platforms for community participation through administrative decentralization
(Núñez 2003).
During the dictatorship, specifically during the late 1970s, the so-called Chicago
Boys took leading positions in certain Chilean ministries, such as in the Planning
Ministry (Ministerio de Planificación). This group of economists, trained at the
University of Chicago, had acquired neoclassical economic theories, such as those
of Milton Friedman, Gary Becker, and Friedrich von Hayek (Valdés 1995). The
extensive market-oriented restructuring reforms launched by this group were based
on a political program called “Chilean model,” which was sealed in 1980 by a
constitution that remains in force to the present, despite a reform carried out in 2005.
On the one hand, this model is based on a “radical economic market order” in which
almost all areas of public welfare are organized by the private sector, and on the
other, on a concept of democracy in which citizens’ political participation is limited
to formal electoral processes and the legislative power is reduced to its “minimum
legitimizing function” (Radermacher 2015, 2).
In legislative terms, the restructuring reforms of the education system broke away
from the traditional principle of the teaching state and replaced it with that of the
subsidiary state. According to this principle, in addition to its financial function, the
state is given a purely regulatory function. In legal terms, the weight of the principle
of liberty of instruction was also increased by declaring it a constitutional right and
explicitly defining it as the right to “open, organize and maintain educational
institutions” (Ministerio del Interior 1980).
The mentioned restructuring reforms were based on five elements. The first key
element was the decentralization (municipalization) of state power regarding the
management of the education system, in addition to a drastic reduction in state
spending on education. With this measure, responsibility for the state’s public
schools was transferred to municipalities and private foundations. This process of
decentralization of public-school management increased inequalities between public
schools situated in the poorest and richest municipalities (Verger et al. 2016). It
should be noted that, from its very beginnings and until the present, the Chilean
school system has been composed of three types of schools: elite private schools,
which operate without any state support and charge fees (called “paid private”
schools); private subsidized schools, that is, free or low-cost private schools that
receive state subsidies; and public schools. Under the aforementioned municipali-
zation law, the latter became municipal schools.
A second significant element was the deregulation of teachers’ labor conditions
and the reduction of power of teachers’ unions. Therefore, teachers did not only lose
their status as public-sector workers, which meant that their labor conditions were
equated to those of other workers in the private sector, but also suffered a drastic
reduction in their salaries. Additionally, the municipalization directly affected the
teachers’ collective bargaining capacity (Verger et al. 2016). In conjunction with
repressive measures, the Sindicato Único de Trabajadores de la Educación (SUTE),
the Chilean union body that brought together all the trade unions and associations of
teachers and education personnel between 1970 and 1973, was dissolved in 1973
and replaced by the Chilean Teachers’ Association (Colegio de profesores) in 1974.
All in all, the political objective of this measure was to reduce the influence of both
teachers and teachers’ unions in education policy and society (Verger et al. 2016).
The third major element affected education financing by the establishment of a
voucher system to finance primary and secondary education. In the framework of this
voucher system, subsidized public and private schools were granted a per capita
subsidy (voucher) for the same amount, depending on the monthly attendance of the
students (Ministerio de Hacienda 1980). Based on Milton Friedman’s voucher
model, the aim was to establish an educational quasi-market in which public and
private subsidized schools competed for parents’ “free choice” of school (Friedman
1962/2005). According to the reformers, the resulting competition between schools
would not only promote cost efficiency, but also improve long-term general educa-
tional quality (Ministerio de Hacienda 1980).
A fourth element of the restructuring reforms was the promotion of the private
sector in education, grounded on the belief that the private sector is intrinsically
more efficient and receptive to social demands than the state sector (Verger et al.
2016). Using measures of liberalization, such as the elimination of bureaucratic
obstacles and the introduction of tax exemptions, the government promoted the
creation of private subsidized schools (Almonacid 2008, 160). In addition, private
subsidized schools could work for profit and were not accountable for the use of
public funds (Bellei 2016, 233–234). Moreover, in 1988, with the introduction of the
so-called financiamiento compartido, private subsidized schools, which were
previously fee-free, could charge school fees, but only with parental consent
(Saavedra Facusse 2013).
In legal terms, “equal treatment” (igualdad de trato) was established between
public and private subsidized schools, in the sense that both types of schools would
receive a state subsidy for the same amount for each student (Ministerio de Hacienda
1980; Ministerio de Educación 1990).
The fifth element was the introduction of assessment as a governance tool to
promote choice and competition. For this purpose, a national standardized test called
the System of Measurement of the Quality of Education (Sistema de Medición de la
Calidad de la Educación, SIMCE) was created in 1988, under the direction of the
Ministry of Education (Benveniste 2002; Falabella 2015). The objective of this test
was to provide parents with sufficient information about the quality of the different
schools to make an informed choice (Guzmán 1989). Connected to this measure, a
curriculum reform was introduced, according to which the state would solely define
the “Fundamental Objectives” and “Mandatory Minimum Content,” controlling
compliance through assessment instruments like the SIMCE (Magendzo and
Egaña 1985).
These measures toward privatization and marketization also affected the tertiary
education system. In 1981, state spending on state universities was drastically
reduced. From then on, the universities had to finance themselves mainly through
student fees. Additionally, market-opening measures facilitated the creation of
private universities, creating a lucrative university market, in which not only the
state, but also numerous foundations, corporations, and/or companies acted as
administrators. Further, technical-vocational tertiary education was fully privatized
through the dissolution of the Technical University of the State and the privatization
of the National Institute for Professional Training, creating two types of private
institutions: the Technical Training Centers (Centros de Formación Técnica, CFT)
and the Professional Institutes (Institutos Profesionales, IP).(cf. Mönckeberg 2007).
Continuity and Change: Post-Dictatorship Education Policy

The transition to democracy took place in 1990 on the basis of a negotiated
agreement between the center-left Coalition of Parties for Democracy
(Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia) and the civic-military representatives
of the dictatorship, who were closely linked to the right-wing parties. This agreement
established the retention of the institutional and constitutional framework of the so-
called Chilean model. The period of the Concertación’s governments, which lasted
20 years, was marked by a gradualist reformism that sought to combine free market
policies with social policy. During this period, Chile was referred to internationally
as a “model country,” in particular by praising its economy and its process of
transition to democracy. In line with the principles of equity and quality, the
education policy of the governments of the Concertación was based on two lines
of action (Donoso Díaz 2005). On the one hand, targeted compensatory programs
were implemented in primary and secondary schools with fewer resources and low
learning outcomes on the SIMCE test. On the other hand, curricular programs with
universal coverage were launched to improve the quality of learning.
Within the compensatory programs we should highlight the “900 Schools Pro-
gram” (Programa de las 900 escuelas, P-900), whose aim was to improve teaching
in the primary schools that performed worst on the SIMCE test. This program was
later extended to secondary education through the “Schools for All” (Liceo para
todos) scheme (Donoso Díaz 2005). Within the programs of universal coverage, it is
worth mentioning the Program for the Improvement of the Quality of Education
(Programa de Mejoramiento de la Calidad de la Educación, (MECE)), which first
targeted primary education and then extended to secondary education in 1994. This
World Bank-funded program sought to improve the infrastructure and equipment of
schools, provide school materials such as texts and introduce new teaching methods.
During this period also the “Projects for the Improvement of Education” (Proyectos
de Mejoramiento Educativo, PME) were implemented to support innovative class-
room initiatives. Additionally, the Enlaces project (Proyecto Enlaces) was launched,
which aimed to integrate educational information technologies into schools (Donoso
Díaz 2005).
In 1996, the so-called “Chilean Educational Reform” (Reforma educativa
chilena) was launched, which, inspired by a constructivist approach, was aimed at
renewing the curricula in the education system at all levels (Cox 2003; Donoso Díaz
2005). Moreover, a major impulse to educational expansion and democratization
represented the establishment of all-day schools ( jornada escolar complete) in 1997
and, the introduction of the compulsory secondary education law in 2003. Regarding
the teaching profession, in 1997 the teachers’ statute (estatuto docente) was
established to improve the precarious conditions the military dictatorship had forced
the teachers into. Within the framework of this statute, remunerations were
increased, as well incentives, internships abroad, continuous improvement, changes
in initial training and awards of excellence were introduced.
The Effects of Chile’s Educational Quasi-Market

When reviewing the educational policy initiated in 1981 during the military dicta-
torship and continued by the governments of the Concertación after the return to
democracy (1990–2010), different effects should be underlined. First of all, the mass
flight of middle class families from public (municipal) schools to private subsidized
schools. While in 1980 some 78% of the student population attended public schools,
in 2016 that percentage had fallen to 38% (Corvalán et al. 2009, 12; MINEDUC
2018a, 46). So, in 2016 more than 62% of children were enrolled in private schools,
with 53.5% of them studying at private subsidized schools and 8.3% at private
schools (MINEDUC 2018a, 46). As a result of this development, a process of social
segregation has accelerated in the sense that each type of school (elite public schools,
public subsidized schools, and public schools) is attended by children from almost
similar social and cultural backgrounds. In fact, in 2004 the OECD described the
Chilean education system as being “consciously structured in classes” (OECD 2004,
277). In 2011, the same organization defined it as having the highest rate of social
segregation between public and private schools (OECD 2011). Within this social
segregation process, the public (municipal) school has become the school of the
most impoverished and marginalized children. Therefore, one of the most significant
social and cultural effects of the establishment of the quasi-market was the erosion of
the public school as a place of social and cultural encounter between children of
different social classes and as a mediator of public citizenship education.
The other effect refers to the unequal financial and regulation conditions of the
schools within the educational quasi-market. First, unequal financial conditions exist
between municipal schools, since, due to the divergence in public revenues, wealth-
ier municipalities have more funds at their disposal than poorer municipalities.
Secondly, there are also unequal conditions between municipal and private subsi-
dized schools, among other factors, because the latter could charge fees starting in
1988 and were not accountable for the use of public funds. Indeed, most of these
schools were for-profit schools (Sepúlveda 2014). Unequal regulatory conditions
referred also to the fact that private subsidized schools (and few municipal secondary
schools) could select students depending on their academic, social, and/or religious
characteristics. As will be discussed later, as of 2015, laws were introduced that
invoked significant changes in these unequal conditions of the Chilean quasi-market.
Similar effects are observed regarding the regulatory and financial conditions of
the higher education market. Privatization resulted in the multiplication of private
universities and technical institutes. In fact, in 2012, 88% of higher education
institutions in Chile were private and 78% of students attended private universities
(Siavelis 2012). Though all private universities are officially nonprofit, different
strategies permit university owners to profit through charging for construction
services, building rents, or “consulting” fees (Siavelis 2012). Since the drastic
reduction of direct state funding, both public and private universities have been
actively marketing to recruit the best students to get indirect public funding (Aporte
Fiscal Indirecto). This process of commercialization has also produced an
uncontrolled growth/deficit of specific careers that are more/less profitable (Brunner
and Uribe 2007), uneven quality across institutions and study programs, but espe-
cially regarding private universities, connected to unequal and/or insufficient stimuli
to research activities in both public and private universities. In fact, although a few
public and private universities have a prominent research performance compared to
other Latin American countries, Chilean universities in general show a modest
presence in the higher levels of global rankings (OECD 2017).
There are also inequity effects in the higher education market in terms of
restrictive access to studies and/or mass drop-out of studies. These effects are a
direct result of the introduction of tuition fees in both public and private universities,
which led many students to take out expensive student loans, facing decades of debt.
Indeed, Chile’s public universities charge the second highest tuition fees in the world
(OECD 2018). Precisely these problems were at the center of the agenda of massive
student protest movements, which will be referred to later.
The Testing Culture and Its Results

One important feature of the Chilean education system is its prominent testing
culture. In fact, Chile could be considered a continental pioneer regarding the
introduction and use of standardized testing since the 1960s. An expression of this
culture is the SIMCE test. Since the School Discretionary Grant Act (Ley de
Subvención Escolar Diferencial) of 2004 (MINEDUC 2008), the logic of this test is
based on the principle of market accountability, in which the test results are used, on
the one hand, in terms of information to differentiate between schools and guide
parents’ choice of school, and on the other, as a mechanism for the control and
distribution of funds by the state considering a dispersed network of administrators
(Falabella 2014, 2018). The SIMCE is, therefore, an accountability mechanism that
classifies schools according to four performance categories, which have awarding (e.
g., employment bonuses) and penalties consequences (e.g., the closure of schools)
(Falabella 2014). One of the problematic side effects of the annual publication of the
SIMCE results in “rankings of schools” in the media has been the construction of a
negative image of municipal schools because these schools tend to get lower results
than the private subsidized schools and elite private schools. However, these rank-
ings hide the fact that public schools have lower resources than private schools and
the latter used strategies such as select or expulse students based on academic
criteria. Additionally, the negative image of public schools favored the exit of
privileged students from these schools.
The testing culture is also manifested in the admission process for higher educa-
tion through the application of a national test, the University Selection Test (Prueba
de Selección Universitaria, PSU), which replaced the PAA in 2003. However, tests,
including psychological tests, are also used as a tool for admission to private schools
from nursery to secondary level.
Another expression of the existing testing culture is the fact that Chile was one of
the first countries to have taken part in various International Large-Scale Assess-
ments (ILSA) conducted since the late 1960s. These include the OECD “Progress in
International Reading Literacy Study” (PIRLS), “Trends in International Mathemat-
ics and Science Study” (TIMSS), “International Computer and Information Literacy
Study” (ICILS), “International Civic and Citizenship Study” (ICCS) of the Interna-
tional Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), “Regional
Comparative and Explanatory Study” (ERCE), conducted by UNESCO’s Latin
American Laboratory for Assessment of the Quality of Education (Laboratorio
Latinoamericano de Evaluación de la Calidad de la Educación, LLECE), and the
“Program for International Student Assessment” (PISA), carried out by the Organi-
zation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Although Chile was the best-performing Latin American country in PISA 2012,
2015, and 2018, the results have been far below the OECD average (Agencia de
Calidad de la Educación ACE 2016a, 2017a; OECD 2019). Thus, on PISA 2015,
students obtained an average of 443 points in all tests, compared to an OECD
average of 492 points (ACE 2016a). In PISA 2018, students obtained an average
of 452 points compared to the OECD average of 482 points (OECD 2019). Chile’s
reading performance has improved since the country’s first participation in PISA (in
2001). However, between 2009 and 2018 no significant trends were observed in
performance in any of the subjects, and results in natural sciences and mathematics
remained stable (ACE 2016a; OECD 2019). Moreover, in all tests since 2001, there
is an extremely low percentage of high-achieving students in Chile. For example, in
PISA 2018 it was found that only 3% of students showed a relatively high level of
competence (level 5 or higher) in reading (OECD average: 9%) (OECD 2019). In

turn, almost 68% of students in Chile showed relatively low proficiency (at least
level 2) in reading (OECD average: 77%, respectively) (OECD 2019). The 2015
TIMSS test, applied to fourth and eighth grade students, came to similar conclusions.
Students in Chile obtained an average of 478 points on this test, which was lower
than the international average (500 points) on all tests (ACE 2017b). In addition,
only 1% of students reached the “advanced” level (compared to about 7% interna-
tionally), and between 15% and 37%, depending on the subject and area evaluated,
did not reach the minimum learning threshold associated with a low level of
learning, compared to between 5% and 16% internationally (ACE 2017b).
As regards the Chilean educational quasi-market and its underlying assumption
that the market would increase the quality of the whole education system, the
performance results of the Chilean students in the various tests, particularly PISA
and TIMSS, tend to confirm that this market has not produced a significant improve-
ment in education quality over time. Hsieh and Urquiola studied the results obtained
by Chilean students on TIMSS from 1970 to 1999 and found that, within the free
school choice system, the performance of the average Chilean student has not
improved compared to that of the average student in other countries (Hsieh and
Urquiola 2006, 1479). The lack of a generalized improvement in the results of the
education system has been attributed, among other factors, to the deregulated
standards of the educational quasi-market. Thus, for example, the authorities at
private subsidized schools would tend to recruit better students and therefore invest
more in school marketing than in educational innovation (Verger and Bonal 2016,
20).
2.2 Political, Economic, and Cultural Contexts and Conditions
In political terms, since 1990 Chile is again a democratic republic. The republic is
managed through a presidential system in which the President of the Republic directs
the government and the administration of the state (executive branch) and performs
the functions of Head of State. The President is elected by direct vote and an absolute
majority of validly cast votes for a period of 4 years without immediate reelection.
Chile is a centralist and unitary state, that is, it has a sole center of political power
exercised by bodies located in the capital. With the purpose of governability and
internal administration of the state, Chilean territory is divided into regions and these
are divided into provinces. For local administration, the provinces are divided into
communes or districts. There are currently 16 regions, 54 provinces, and 346
districts.
According to the 2017 census, Chile has a population of almost 18 million people
(INE 2018). Freedom of religion is a constitutional right in Chile. As a result of
Spanish colonization, the majority (70%) of the population identify themselves as
Catholic, but 15% identify as evangelical Christian, and 8% as atheist, agnostic, or
with no religion (INE 2018).
Chile’s population is multiethnic, dominating its mestizo character, that is, the
mixture between European immigrants and native Amerindian peoples (Berríos del
Solar 2016). In addition, about 12.8% of the population identify as belonging to
different indigenous or native peoples (including Mapuche, Aymara, Rapa Nui,
Lican Antai, Quecha, Colla, Kawésquar, Diaguita, and Yámana), with the predom-
inant group (about 80%) being Mapuche (INE 2018). Despite the ethnic diversity of
the population, the de facto official language is Spanish.
Recently, migration has added a dynamic factor to the composition of the
population. Thus, the percentage of immigrants (born abroad and who state that
they reside in Chile) has increased over time, rising from 0.81% in 1992 to 4.35% in
2017 (INE 2018). Around 66.7% of these immigrants arrived in the country between
2010 and 2017 (INE 2018). The majority of immigrants comes from Latin America
(predominantly from Peru, Colombia, and Venezuela) (INE 2018).
As part of the process of demographic transition, Chile has evolved from high to
low birth rates. Thus, the average number of children that women have throughout
their fertile life (15–49 years) has declined over time, from 1.6 children per woman
in 2002 to 1.3 children in 2017 (INE 2018). This demographic process will have
consequences for the education system because the size of the population eligible to
receive formal education will decrease. In addition, the Chilean population has
undergone a process of progressive urbanization since the 1960s, reaching 87.3%
in 2017 (INE 2018).
Integrated into the global market, the Chilean economy is defined by its neo-
extractivist nature, depending to a large extent on the extraction of natural resources,
such as copper and lithium, and the export of timber, fishing, and agricultural
resources. The economy thus has low added-value, shows reduced use of technol-
ogy, and has low levels of innovation (French-Davis 2002).
Chile stands out in Latin America for its economic stability. Thus, the transition to
democracy since the beginning of the 1990s was marked by sustained economic
growth at an average of 4.6% in the period between 2000 and 2014, maintaining low
levels of inflation and of public debt. Additionally, according to the size of its GDP
(US$ 386.6 billion PPP), in 2013 Chile’s economy ranked 44th among the 179 world
economies (MINEDUC 2016b). That year, its GDP per capita reached US$ 21,942
(PPP) (MINEDUC 2016b). These indicators were influential in Chile becoming the
first South American country to be a member of the OECD in 2010. In addition,
according to the World Bank, poverty was reduced from 29.1% to 14.4% between
2006 and 2013 (OECD 2017).
However, one of the crucial structural problems affecting Chile is social inequal-
ity. In fact, Chile is the most unequal country among the OECD nations (MINEDUC
2016b). This inequality is explained largely by the concentration of the population’s
wealth among the richest 10% of the country (MINEDUC 2016b). This group earns
26.5 times more than the average income of those that belong to the poorest 10% of
the population (MINEDUC 2016b). Actually, different studies based on the calcu-
lation of the labor income and contributory pensions show that in 2017 poverty rate
was 29.4% (Durán and Kremerman 2018). In fact, in 2017 half of all workers earned
less than US$ 552 per month and 50% of those receiving contributory pensions earn
less than US$ 268 (ibid.). Moreover, taking in account more strict poverty lines, the
poverty rate could reach to 42.8% – considering the price of the quality food basket
and income from work and pensions contributions (ibid.). Other studies have pointed
out that Chilean citizens not only are the most indebted in Latin America, but also
that the country leads the per capita debt, even though Chile holds one of the highest
annual per capita wealth index of the region (Consultora BíoBíoSur 2015).
Social inequality is reflected in the education system in terms of access inequity,
high expenditure on education, and high levels of debt. These debts are connected to
the fact that, at tertiary level, Chile is the country with one of the highest family
expenditures on higher education in the world (OECD 2013). For example, middle-
class families spend 40% of their income per child on student fees while children are
in university or professional institutes – these expenses are higher than in any other
OECD country, including the United States (Siavelis 2012). In fact, there has been a
dramatic growth and extension of family indebtedness to the university and banking
system. For example, at the beginning of 2016, the total debt of the University Credit
Solidarity Fund (Fondo Solidario de Crédito Universitario-FSCU), was US$ 533
billion (Espinoza 2017, 193).
2.3 Social Conditions: Provision/Coverage of Population
One of Chile’s remarkable achievements of the post-dictatorship era has been a

significant growth in educational coverage, which is mainly due to the extension of
compulsory education to the secondary level in 2003 and greater access to higher
education since 2006 (Carrillo et al. 2018). Thus, the average schooling of the 25-
year-old population increased from 8.23 years in 1992 to 11.05 years in 2017 (INE
2018). Similarly, between 1992 and 2017, the proportion of people aged 25 and over
who had passed at least one higher education course increased from 11.7% to 29.8%
(INE 2018). Meanwhile, first-year higher education enrollment grew by 56%
between 2006 and 2016 (Carrillo et al. 2018).
The net enrollment rates for primary education, that is, for children between 6 and
13 years of age, remained close to 100% between 2010 and 2015, without any large
variations by sex. Net enrollment rates for secondary education between 2009 and
2015 were approximately 88%. The enrollment rate in the first year of undergraduate
degrees in 2016 was 57%, similar to the level in the OECD nations (Carrillo et al.
2018).
However, with respect to higher education, this exorbitant expansion of access is
largely due to students of vulnerable or socially disfavored origin contracting credit
to finance university fees. For example, the State Guarantee Credit (Crédito con Aval
del Estado), created in 2005, is a credit where the Chilean State acts as guarantor of
credits given by the bank to all students studying in public and private institutions
(Kremerman et al. 2020). Therefore, the expansion of higher education has had as
problematic side effects the exorbitant growth of family indebtedness and the
increased enrollment in private higher education institutions, what clearly reflects
an increasing trend toward privatization of the whole system (ibid.).
Another of the problems facing the education system is coverage in early

childhood. Although access to education has increased in the last decade, there are
still low coverage rates for children under 3 years of age (20%) and at 3 years of age
(56%) (OECD 2018). In contrast, enrollment rates for children between the age of 4
and 5 are close to the OECD average and participation is almost universal at the age
of 5 (OECD 2018).
As regards the proportion of young people aged 16 and 17 who have enrolled in
an educational establishment, Chile presents rates similar to those of the OECD
average, that is, close to 95% of enrollment among 16-year-olds and 90% among 17-
year- olds (MINEDUC 2018a, 92).
With regard to the educational level reached by the population in 2014, in Chile
35% of the adult population between 25 and 64 had not completed secondary
education, but 42% had completed secondary education, close to the OECD average
(41%) (OECD 2018). In contrast, only 22% of the adult population in Chile had
completed higher education, some 14% points below the OECD average, although
similar to the rates in other Latin American countries such as Colombia and Costa
Rica (22% and 23%, respectively) (OECD 2018).
When these indicators are examined from a generational perspective, we can see
significant progress. The levels of achievement are thus much higher for the younger
generations: the proportion of people between 25 and 34 years who did not complete
their secondary education was only 17%, compared to 15% for OECD countries
(OECD 2018). In addition, higher education coverage rates for the total number of
people in the 18–24 age group increased consistently from 2010 to 2016, rising from
33.8% to 40.6% (MINEDUC 2018a, 138). In terms of gender and in contrast to the
trend among the OECD countries, in Chile men and women have similar levels of
educational achievement. Thus, for the age group between 25 and 64 years, some
22% of both men and women have graduated from higher education (OECD 2018).
Despite the low proportion of illiterates (approximately 4.3%) among the popu-
lation older than 15 years, the competence levels of the population are low (Carrillo
et al. 2018). According to the results of the 2015 OECD Survey of Adult Skills
(PIAAC), approximately 53% of the adult population (15–65) do not have adequate
literacy skills (level 1 and under level 1), which is associated with functional
illiteracy, that is, the lack of ability to apply reading and comprehension of reading
to their daily activities (Carrillo et al. 2018).
2.4 Transition to Employment Market: Organization and Support
Regarding the transition of the population from school to the employment market,
the average schooling of the Working-Age Population (WAP), (i.e., between 15 and
64 years) rose from 8.9 years in 1990 to 11.2 years in 2015 (Carrillo et al. 2018).
However, there is a strikingly high proportion of people (21% between 18 and
24 years) that can be considered as NEET (neither in education nor in employment
or training) (OECD 2018). Considering the gender variable, the proportion of
women (26%) among the NEET population is higher than that of men (16%)
(OECD 2018). This gap doubles when comparing inactivity rates: 79% of NEET
women between 18 and 24 years of age are inactive, while in the case of men this
percentage is 59% (OECD 2018). In terms of employability according to age, sex,
and education level, Chile exceeds the OECD average for employment at almost all
educational levels obtained (OECD 2017, 13). However, there are important gender
inequalities because despite having similar rates of educational attainment, women
are less likely to find employment (OECD 2018). Thus, on average, 79% of women
between 25 and 64 years who have completed higher education are in paid work,
compared to 91% of men in that age bracket (OECD 2018).
Another fundamental problem lies in income inequality according to educational
level and gender. In fact, Chile has one of the highest wage differences among the
OECD countries after Brazil (OECD 2018). Thus, adults with higher education earn
137% more than those who completed secondary education (OECD 2018). On
average, almost 72% of workers with tertiary education earn 1.5 times more than
the average (OECD 2015). Moreover, those with a master’s degree, doctorate, or
equivalent earn five times more than those with higher secondary education (OECD
2015). Considering the gender variable, in 2015 women with a higher education
degree earned 65% of the average salary received by a man with the same education,
which contrasts with the average 74% among the OECD nations (OECD 2018).
3 Institutional and Organizational Principles
In this part we give an overview of the general principles of the education system,
discuss recent reform processes, and analyze its educational administration and
governance structure. Additionally, we describe the general structure of the educa-
tion system and the situation of its personnel.
3.1 General Principles
As already mentioned, the present Chilean education system is characterized by a

governance regime where principles of privatization, marketization, and liberaliza-
tion coexist with state regulations and guidelines for assessment, monitoring, and
accountability (Bellei 2015; Corvalán et al. 2016; Falabella 2015; Orellana 2018).
In fact, the market-oriented governance regime of the Chilean education system
introduced during the restructuring reforms of the military dictatorship was contin-
ued, based on the presumption that competition between institutions drives and
guarantees processes of educational quality. This involves free choice of educational
institutions, competitive financing for students, and the decentralization and privat-
ization of educational management. Under this governance regime and following
accountability measures, the educational establishments receive additional incen-
tives (and possible penalties) according to test performance. Therefore, within the
market-oriented governance regime, the production of performance results and the
dissemination of comparative results broken down by institution generate
information that should guide individual decisions. Another principle is that these
decisions are assumed to be “rational” in the sense that the actors make their choices
in an informed and rational manner, which would lead to a “performance market”
rather than a “free market” (Falabella 2015). Additionally, it is understood that all
educational institutions should be evaluated and accredited by centralized bodies.
This market-oriented governance regime is based legally on the principles of
diversity and liberty of instruction, on the understanding that there is significant
participation on the part of both the private sector and the public sector, which has
been called a “mixed system.” The principle of “equality of treatment” is essential
here, according to which the state offers and favors the public and private sectors
equally, unlike the principle of the teaching state which was predominant during
most of the twentieth century, when the state played a centralizing role giving
preference to the public sector. In addition, and as a result of the Concertación
coalition’s education reforms since the 1990s, the principle of positive discrimina-
tion has guided a number of policies and programs aimed at providing greater
support to schools – both public and private – that serve people in disadvantaged
areas.
3.1.1 Student Mobilization Driving for Reforms

Since 2006, a massive student movement called the Penguins’ Revolution
(Revolución de los Pingüinos named for students’ black and white uniforms) has
been questioning the neoliberal basis of the education system branded as a social
“apartheid system” (Alarcón 2017). The students criticized the social inequality,
inequity, and segregation effects of that system, as well the high levels of indebted-
ness of the students and their families. In 2011, the student movement reached its
zenith resulting in a paralysis of the education system that lasted more than 8 months
and had a crucial impact on the political agenda of the next government of Michelle
Bachelet (2014–2018). The agenda of the center-left governing coalition New
Majority (Nueva Mayoría) sought to achieve for the first time since the end of the
military dictatorship in 1990 a structural change in the market-oriented educational
governance regime. The aim of this agenda was to mitigate the deregulated nature of
the regime, reduce segregation and inequality effects, democratize access, and
improve the quality of educational institutions. This agenda included the so-called
“inclusion law” (ley de inclusión), “higher education law” (ley de educación supe-
rior), and “public education system law” (ley del sistema de educación pública),
which along with the law of the “Professional Teacher Development System”
(Sistema de Desarrollo Profesional Docente) were approved during this government
(MINEDUC 2015).
The target of the “inclusion law” was the voucher-based quasi-market, which then
had existed for more than 35 years, specifically the private subsidized schools.
Firstly, this law established that private subsidized schools should no longer be
allowed to charge fees, stating that the state itself will compensate for the lacking
parents’ contributions with higher subsidies (BCN 2015). The basic argument was
that fees contributed to increasing segregation without significantly improving the
quality of education (BCN 2015). Secondly, the law established the prohibition of
both academic and social selection of students to prevent any form of social
“discrimination” and promote a more cohesive and democratic society (BCN
2015). Although in 2006, as a result of the student movement, the General Education
Law (Ley General de Educación) had prohibited selection based on socioeconomic
factors, the regulation did not set out any mechanism of control or penalties
(MINEDUC 2009). The law therefore stipulated that schools should not impose
requisites either on academic performance or on family, religious, or socioeconomic
conditions. Registration of school applicants should be organized through a central
system by the Ministry of Education. In the case of increased demand, selection
should be done at random (Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile (BCN) 2015,
7). The other major pillar of the law is the “end of profit-making,” considering that
most private subsidized schools were run for profit (Sepúlveda 2014). The law stated
that private subsidized institutions would be transformed into nonprofit institutions
(BCN 2015). Those that did not want to follow this strategy would have to transform
their institutions into private schools (BCN 2015).
The Public Education System Law or De-Municipalization Act approved in 2017
established the transfer of municipal educational establishments from 345 units to 70
new state depended “Local Education Services” (Servicios Locales de Educación).
The law states that the transition between the municipal administration and the new
created National Public Education System (Sistema Nacional de Educación Pública)
will be a gradual process and will be underway until 2025.
One of the most prominent demands of the student movement was their demand
for a free university (educación gratuita). As a result, the Free Education Law, which
was part of the Higher Education Law, was passed in 2018. This law established
universal free higher education, although in a first phase it only benefits students
from families within the 60% of the lowest income earners (MINEDUC 2018a).
Basically, the system is based on a voucher scheme or demand-side subsidy, in
which the state provides institutions affiliated to the program (public and private
universities, technical institutes, and technical training centers) a subsidy for each
registered student. To join this program, private educational institutions must have at
least 4 years of accreditation and be nonprofit making (MINEDUC 2018a). The
higher education law also created a Sub-Secretariat of Higher Education (Sub-
secretaría de Educación Superior), which will oversee the coordination of the
system, and a Superintendency of Higher Education (Superintendencia de
Educación Superior), which will monitor compliance with the regulations and
establish the mandatory institutional accreditation (MINEDUC 2018a).
3.2 Educational Administration and Governance
3.2.1 Financing
In recent decades investment in education has increased substantially, on the under-
standing that education fulfills a key role in the training of human capital and the
development of the country (Bellei 2015; Falabella 2015). As of 2016, education
spending as a proportion of GDP was 7.2% (OECD 2018b). Although it is important
to consider that financing of education is mixed, since both state and private funds
are injected into the sector simultaneously, of total education spending as a propor-
tion of GDP, 2.49% is from the private sector and 4.71% is of public origin (OECD
2018b).
3.2.2 Organization of Governance

The education system consists of a complex matrix of institutions. Each institution is
briefly described below (MINEDUC 2017b; OECD 2017).
• Ministry of Education (Ministerio de Educación, MINEDUC): This is the gov-

ernmental institution responsible for the education system. Its legal responsibil-
ities include proposing and assessing education policies, programs, and plans;
creating curricular instruments; developing learning standards; supervising the
development of the education system; and managing financial resources to
achieve coverage, quality, and equity objectives.
• National Education Council (Consejo Nacional de Educación, CNED): An
autonomous state body. Its objective is to promote and defend the quality of
education at the various levels. It is responsible for revising proposals of curric-
ular instruments, study programs, and standardized assessments designed by
MINEDUC. It also grants licenses to new higher education institutions, appeals
accreditation decisions taken by the National Accreditation Council (CNA), and
implements the closure of tertiary technical-vocational education institutions. It
also disseminates information regarding the education system and promotes
research into it.
• Education Quality Assurance Agency (Agencia de Calidad de la Educación,
ACE): This agency’s aim is to assess the quality and equality of the school
system, disseminate information on it, classify the educational institutions
based on their results, guide their improvement, and determine possible penalties.
It is responsible for the SIMCE assessment, the Other Indicators of Education
Quality (OIC), assessment visits to institutions with unsatisfactory results, and
international assessments.
• National Accreditation Council (Consejo Nacional de Acreditación, CNA): This
is the body that is responsible for regulating the processes of accreditation for
higher education. Although accreditation for institutions and programs is volun-
tary, the allocation of state resources (scholarships, subsidies, and credits)
depends upon it.
• Superintendency of School Education and Higher Education (Superintendencia
de Educación Escolar y Educación Superior): These are superintendencies for
both school level (which includes preschool level) and for higher education. Their
function is to inform, monitor, and supervise compliance with educational regu-
lations. They also have to resolve inquiries and address grievances and com-
plaints regarding the use of resources and the violation of the rights of the
educational community.
Governance of Early Education

Various institutions are responsible for the administration of early education estab-
lishments. Firstly, the National Nursery Schools Board (Junta Nacional de Jardines
Infantiles, JUNJI) and Fundación Integra, both of which are funded by the state and
have their own nursery schools. There are also children’s centers subsidized by the
state, managed by municipalities or private nonprofit entities, the system of which is
called “Fund Transfers” (Vía Transferencia de Fondos, VTF). These arrangements
are mainly focused on serving disadvantaged sectors of the country. In addition,
there are private preschools families pay for, but they do not exceed 7% of the total
of such establishments in the country. On the other hand, the pre-nursery and nursery
levels are mostly integrated into schools. As of 2015, JUNJI attended 28.10% of total
enrollment by direct administration, Fundación Integra 11.4%, the municipal sector
20.5%, the private subsidized sector 33%, and the paid private sector 6.9% (OECD
2017).
Governance and Financing of Schools

At school level there are three types of administration: public, private subsidized,
and paid private schools. In recent decades there has been a drastic decline in
enrollment in public education. As mentioned above, in 2016 a total of 38.2% of
coverage was provided by public education, while private subsidized education
accounted for 53.5%, and paid private education for 8.3% (MINEDUC 2017a).
Public schools were managed by municipalities (345 in the country) after the
reform in the 1980s. However, in light of the inequalities between the local bodies,
since 2017 management of these schools (and municipal nursery schools) has started
being gradually transferred to new entities called “Local Education Services”
(Servicios Locales Educativos) (70 in the country). These are autonomous institu-
tions, with bigger support teams than the municipalities. They are directly financed
by the state and are accountable to the Ministry of Education.
Private subsidized schools receive a subsidy depending on the number of children
enrolled, just as public schools do, in addition to the Preferential School Subsidy
(Elacqua et al. 2016; Joiko 2011; Valenzuela et al. 2013). However, private subsi-
dized schools can carry out student selection, make profits, receive donations, and
charge fees to families (Before the introduction of the Inclusion Law, there were also
municipal secondary schools that selected students and charged fees to families, but
it was a very limited number); although since 2015, with the enactment of the
mentioned Inclusion Law, these activities have all been banned and compliance is
being implemented gradually (Carrasco 2018; Treviño 2018). On the other hand,
paid private schools, funded by the families of students, have full autonomy regard-
ing these regulations and their form of governance.
Curriculum and Assessment Model

The principles that govern the National Education Curriculum are defined in the
General Education Law (MINEDUC 2017b, 2018c). Adherence to these principles
is compulsory in all national territories. This curriculum considers a range of
vocational and career choices by students, so in the final years of secondary
education, they choose one of three study plans: Technical-Professional (TP),

Humanistic-Scientific (HC), or Artistic. These modalities continue with a common
general plan and specific subjects are added for each specialty.
There have also been already mentioned SIMCE tests since 1988 (Falabella
2018). This standardized test is applied annually in all national schools regardless
of their financing system and it assesses compulsory content in the national curric-
ulum. Assessments are run for the fourth, sixth, and eighth grade, in addition to the
second year of secondary school (tenth grade). The test-results are published on the
internet, broken down for each school. In addition, a University Selection Test
(Prueba Nacional de Selección Universitaria, PSU) is also applied.
Governance at the Tertiary Level

Generally speaking, there are three types of tertiary study institutions: Technical
Training Centers (Centros de Formación Técnica, CFT), Professional Institutes
(Institutos Profesionales, IP), and universities. The CFTs offer educational programs
leading to mid-level technical degrees. The IPs provide courses that, upon comple-
tion, grant technical degrees without a bachelor’s degree, and higher-level technical
degrees, while universities offer undergraduate courses with technical degrees (with
or without a bachelor’s degree), higher-level technical degrees, and post-graduate
degrees (diploma, postgraduate programs, master’s degrees, and doctorates). Both
CFTs and the IPs are solely private institutions that can be nonprofit or for-profit,
while the universities must be nonprofit. The CFTs represent 11.36% of enrollment
at the tertiary level, IPs 30.8%, and universities 57.8%.
This educational level includes the involvement of the National Accreditation
Council (CNA), the function of which is to accredit educational institutions. Accred-
itation is voluntary, but the allocation of public funds is directly related to the
operation of programs and institutions, because applying for scholarships and
student loans is impossible without accreditation.
Higher education institutions have heterogeneous forms of governance, as the
Constitutional Education Law (Ley Orgánica Constitucional de Enseñanza, LOCE)
favors the autonomy of the institutions in terms of academic, economic, and admin-
istrative aspects. The most important organization is the Council of Rectors of
Chilean Universities (Consejo de Rectores de las Universidades de Chile,
CRUCH), comprising 27 universities, of which 18 are public universities belonging
to the Consortium of State Universities of Chile (Consorcio de las Universidades
Estatales de Chile, CUECH) and nine are private nonprofit universities that form the
Network of Non-State Public Universities (Red de Universidades Públicas no
Estatales, Red G9).
3.3 Structure of the Education System According to ISCED-

Classification
The education system comprises the following levels: early education 0–6 years
(educación parvularia); primary school 6–14 years (educación básica); secondary
school 14–18 years (educación media), and higher education (see Fig. 1).
Early education (ISCED 0): The structure of the early education system consists
of three internal levels: Nursery (0–2 years), Middle Level (2–4 years), and Transi-
tion Level (Pre-Nursery and Nursery, 4–6 years). The national Constitution obliges
the state to promote early education and it is considered a right that is guaranteed by
the state.
Primary School Education (ISCED 1 and 2A): This level covers 8 years of
schooling, from 6 to 14 years.
Secondary School Education (ISCED 3A): Covers 4 years, from 15 to 18 years.
In the last 2 school years, secondary education is separated into Humanistic-Scien-
tific (55.3%) and Vocational Education (44.7%) (MINEDUC 2018c). Compulsory
school education is addressed by a reform defined in the General Education Law.
The proposal is that the current division of primary and secondary education into
eight and four grades, respectively, be reorganized as from 2027 into six primary
education grades and six secondary education grades.
Special education: There is special education at all levels of preschool and
primary education and it involves material and human resources, technical-peda-
gogical strategies, and assistance services that enable the incorporation of previously
adapted curricular guidelines, which are not stipulated for secondary education.
Admission to this program does not have specific age requirements for the different
grades, but the maximum age of students is 26 years. In addition, in mainstream
schools there is the School Integration Program (Programa de Integración Escolar,
PIE), which implies additional resources for specialized professional support for
students with learning difficulties.
Adult education: The educational modality for adults, or Education of Young
People and Adults (Educación de Personas Jóvenes y Adultas, EPJA), is intended to
promote education as a right and alleviate levels of abandonment from the formal
compulsory education system. To access this modality, a student must be 15 years
EARLY EDUCTION SECONDARY SCHOOL

• Nursery EDUCATION
• Middle Level • Technical-Professional
• Transition (Pre-Nursery and Nusery) • Scientific-Humanist
PRIMARY SCHOOL HIGHER EDUCATION

EDUCATION • CFT
• IP
• University
Fig. 1 Compulsory and voluntary education levels. (Source: OECD 2017)

old or more to enter primary education and 17 years or more to enter the first three
grades of secondary education.
3.4 Provision of Staff
In schools there are various agents with different functions, which, generally speak-
ing, are the following: school governor (sostenedor), principal, deputy principal,
inspector general, counselor, curriculum leader (head of the technical-teaching unit),
classroom teacher, and traditional educator. A majority of classroom teachers are
women (72.8%) and holders of teaching degrees (94.3%) (MINEDUC 2017a).
In 2016, Law 20,903 created the System for Teacher Professional Development
(Sistema de Desarrollo Profesional Docente), which regulates aspects of teacher
training and professional practice. Training of teachers is provided solely in univer-
sities and there are national standards for initial teacher training. There are also
minimum admission requirements for students based on their scores on the Univer-
sity Selection Test (PSU) and all training programs must be accredited by the CNA
(Fernández 2018; Ruffinelli 2016).
A progressive teaching career defines stages of progression for teachers, which is
linked to their salaries. This involves a test of specific and pedagogical knowledge
and a portfolio of teaching skills. A system of teacher evaluation for the public sector
also exists, which has been applied since 2004 (Cornejo et al. 2015; Fardella and
Sisto 2015).
Most teachers work in only one educational establishment (MINEDUC 2017a),
with a limit of 45 students per classroom, and, according to the OECD, Chile is the
country where teachers spend the third-highest proportion of their time in front of the
classroom, with little time to prepare and assess their teaching work (OECD 2018).
The salaries of teachers have increased progressively and, with the enactment of the
Teacher Development Law (Ley de Desarrollo Docente), theoretical teacher salaries
represent between 82% and 84% of the average salary of a worker with a profes-
sional degree (OECD 2017, 2018). It is important to consider that there are various
bonuses that contribute to teachers’ salaries, such as the bonus for performance in
difficult conditions, “academic excellence” (National System of Performance Eval-
uation, Sistema Nacional de Evaluación del Desempeño), and the Teaching Excel-
lence Allowance (Asignación Excelencia Pedagógica, AEP) (MINEDUC 2016c,
2018). The union of primary and secondary school teachers in Chile is the Colegio
de Profesores de Chile. This body primarily comprises public sector teachers and it
plays an important role in union negotiations with the legislative and executive
branches of government.
4 Educational Trends and Highlighted Aspects
In this final part, we discuss some of the current issues of Chilean education, such as
the socioeconomic and gender-related performance gap, the educational activities of
digitization and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) as well as the
policies and programs related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
(STEM). Finally, we refer to emerging issues of the education system, related to
recent reforms, prevailing challenges and emerging movements like the feminist
student and an “Opt Out” testing movement.
4.1 Performance Gap
As already mentioned, one of the main political problems faced by the Chilean
education system for decades is that of social inequality, inequity, and segregation.
Indeed, the results of the PISA test over time have reflected how the socioeconomic
background of families are determining factors in their children’s learning perfor-
mance, that is, young people of a higher socioeconomic background perform better
(ACE 2016a; OECD 2019). When looking at Chile’s results in terms of socioeco-
nomic level, regardless of some progress since 2000, significant performance gaps
still exist (ACE 2016a; OECD 2019). For example, as regards PISA 2015, when
comparing the scores of the lowest socioeconomic levels with those of the highest,
there are between 95 and 104 points of difference depending on the test; a gap similar
to that between the results of Chile and Finland (ACE 2016a). However, in PISA
2018 the performance gap in reading was slightly reduced to 87 points (OECD
2019).
TIMSS 2015 also showed that there is a performance gap between students from
families of low socioeconomic status and those of a high status. This difference is 78
points, also similar to the difference between the results of Chile and Finland (ACE
2016b). On the other hand, the percentage of students from the poorest quintile that
achieve the high level of results is lower than 7%, while in the higher income
quintile, this figure exceeds 20% (ACE 2016b).
This performance gap is also observed when comparing educational institutions
according to their administrative model. Thus, the PISA and TIMSS studies have
shown that in Chile, in general, private schools obtain better results than private
subsidized schools, and the latter perform better than municipal schools (IEA and
ACE 2011, 17; ACE 2014). Here we should highlight two particularly crucial
factors. On the one hand, there is a marked gap between the learning outcomes of
private schools and municipal schools, which is estimated to be around 3 school
years (ACE 2014), while on the other we have the mediocre results obtained by
students at private schools in international achievement tests. Thus, 10% of socially
disadvantaged children in Shanghai (which has a gross domestic product equivalent
to that of Chile) achieve better results than the richest 10% of Chilean children
(Schleicher 2014).
The gap achieved by municipal and private schools is explained by a number of

factors, such as selecting and expulsion practices of students carried out by private
subsidized schools and the flight of academically successful middle class students
from municipal schools to private schools (Carrasco et al. 2013; Bellei 2005; Hsieh
and Urquiola 2006, 1479; OECD 2010, 119). It should be noted that, with respect to
both PISA 2015 and TIMSS 2015, no differences were found between municipal and
private subsidized establishments in any of the three areas assessed when comparing
the students of similar socioeconomic level of each type of school (ACE 2016a,
2017b).
As in other national and international studies, PISA 2015, PISA 2018, and
TIMSS 2015 confirm significant gender-related gaps (ACE 2016a, b; OECD
2019). In fact, in PISA 2015 and 2018, the only test on which the female students
obtained better results was in reading (ACE 2016a; OECD 2019, see chapter on
STEM).
4.2 ICT and Digitalization
The government program Enlaces network (Red Enlaces) was the cornerstone of the
policy to expand the use of ICT and digitization as a teaching and curricular medium
in the classroom (Sánchez et al. 2011, 139). This came about as a pilot program in
1992 within the framework of the Ministry of Education and as part of the MECE
Program, the objective being to establish a national educational network among all
the subsidized schools and lyceums in the country, including urban and rural
multigrade schools (Toro 2010). From that year, the program was expanded in
order to enhance the study programs, provide teachers with new digital teaching
tools, and offer all students the same opportunities to access digital learning
resources, regardless of their geographic location or the socioeconomic level of
their schools (MINEDUC, https://www.innovacion.mineduc.cl/historia). One of
the milestones of this program was the inclusion of educational computer resources
as a cross-curricular objective of secondary education (Sánchez et al. 2011).
The Enlaces network Program is organized as a network, with the main actors
being the Ministry of Education, through the Education and Technology Centre
(Centro de Educación y Tecnología), universities, and other institutions that perform
the role of zonal centers executing units throughout the country (Sánchez et al.
2011). These zonal centers and executing units in universities and other institutions
provide training, consulting, and technical support services, and carry out projects
for the innovative use and research of ICT (Sánchez et al. 2011).
At the Latin American level, the Enlaces network is considered to be one of the
most systematic, successful, and sustainable educational program in terms of
expanding ICT infrastructure throughout the school system, including rural, urban,
and indigenous areas, as well as in terms of community education (United Nations
2005). According to the Second Information Technology in Education Study
(SITES-M2) 2002, conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation
of Educational Achievement (IEA), Chile also ranked first in terms of coverage of
secondary education teachers who have received training in the use of new infor-
mation and communication technologies (MINEDUC, https://www.innovacion.
mineduc.cl/historia).
4.3 STEM Subjects
Teaching of STEM subjects, specifically natural sciences, has received a significant

boost since the beginning of 2000. As a result of joint action between the Chilean
Academy of Sciences (Academia Chilena de Ciencias) and the Faculty of Medicine
at Universidad de Chile, the Program of Inquiry-Based Science Education (Pro-
grama de Educación en Ciencias Basada en la Indagación, ECBI) has been
implemented since 2003, being carried out in six primary schools in the Metropol-
itan Region and obtaining a positive reception in the educational community and
favorably affecting the motivation of science teachers and students (UAH-ICEC
2017). Scientific inquiry as a teaching approach brings schoolchildren and students
closer together in terms of the ways of working, thinking, and reasoning specific to
scientific activities. The aim of this innovation in science classes is to give students
the possibility of obtaining knowledge and proactively participating (UAH-ICEC
2017). The ECBI program was extended in 2009, being applied in 281 schools in all
15 regions of the country. Until 2014 the Ministry also received support from various
institutions to prepare educational material with a focus on scientific inquiry. Based
on this experience, in 2014 the Ministry of Education, with the cooperation of
several universities with experience in implementing inquiry as a teaching strategy,
jointly created the technical basis to implement the Program of Scientific Inquiry for
Science Education (Indagación Científica para lo Educación en Ciencias, ICEC),
which comprises three systemic pillars: professional teacher development, curricular
management, and assessment and monitoring (UAH-ICEC 2017).
As regards the performance of students in ILSA, it should be noted that, in PISA
2015 and 2018, the results of Chilean students in both mathematics and natural
sciences were below the OECD average, but were higher than the Latin American
average (ACE 2017a; OECD 2019). In all tests since 2001, there is an extremely low
percentage of high-achieving students in Chile. For example, in PISA 2018 it was
found that only 1% of students showed a relatively high level of competence (level 5
or higher) in mathematics and science (OECD average: 11% and 7%, respectively).
In turn, almost 48% of students in Chile showed relatively low proficiency (at least
level 2) in mathematics and 65% in science (OECD average: 76% and 78%,
respectively) (OECD 2019).
In the 2015 TIMSS performance/achievement test, the country also obtained
results that were below the international average on all tests (ACE 2016b). However,
TIMSS 2015 confirms that, in the last 16 years, eighth grade primary students have
shown significant improvements in mathematics and science that exceeded 30 points
in the period (ACE 2016b). In spite of this, in the different subjects and levels,
between 15% and 37% of the students fail to reach 400 points, that is, their
performance is lower than that required to reach the low performance level, and
only 1% of students reach the advanced level, compared to the countries with the
best results, where almost 50% reach the advanced level (ACE 2016b).
Likewise, the results of PISA 2015, PISA 2018, and TIMSS 2015 confirm a large
gender gap among students regarding their competencies in Mathematics (ACE
2016a, 2017b; OECD 2018), which is also observable regarding science in PISA
2015, and TIMSS 2015. However, in PISA 2018, girls and boys performed similarly
in science.
The gender gap is also evident in the University Selection Test (PSU) scores and
the results of the SIMCE tests in terms of mathematics (ComunidadMujer 2017).
Similarly, unfavorable results were observed for the students in the TIMSS 2015
test. In fact, regarding eighth grade primary students, Chile shows the largest gender
gap in mathematics and the second largest gap in sciences among all the participating
countries (ACE 2017b). However, in TIMSS 2015 Chile did not show gender
differences in mathematics among fourth grade primary students (ACE 2016b).
With respect to higher education, the gender gap can be observed in Chile in the
process of students choosing STEM careers, but not in access to higher education
institutions. Thus, when putting Chile into context with the other OECD countries, it
is below the average and ranks seventh in terms of the low participation of women in
careers such as engineering, while in basic sciences it ranks eighth (ComunidadMujer
2017).
Various studies have confirmed that the STEM gender gap in Chile translated into
low student outcomes in the STEM subjects of the school curriculum and in the high
degree of male domination of STEM university careers, is associated with cultural
aspects, such as the reproduction of stereotypes and the existence of differential
expectations on the part of parents and teachers regarding students (ACE 2016b;
ComunidadMujer 2017).
4.4 Emerging Issues Since 2010
Regarding the last decade we will discuss in this part the emergence of possible side
effects and features of recent educational reforms, denote persisting challenges and
refer to the rise of new social movements directly connected to education. Regarding
the recent inclusion law and free education law of the government of Bachelet
(2014–2018), that were intended to transform or at least change the rules of the
Chilean market-oriented governance model, it should be noted that although they did
result in progress in terms of democratizing access to education and addressing the
deregulated nature of the system, they maintain the market and competition logic of
the Chilean educational governance regime. Critical scrutiny of both makes it
possible to anticipate that, paradoxically, they could even end up strengthening
this market and competition logic. In other words, the abolition of school and
university fees could increase enrollment in private subsidized schools and private
universities, leaving the public schools and universities with even fewer students. In
addition, the fundamental question is whether the two laws can effectively reduce
inequality and segregation effects in the Chilean education system.
Additionally, recently proposed bills introduced by the right-wing government of

Sebastián Piñera, in power since 2017, confirm the resistance of some sectors of
society to the democratization of access to education or its universalization. In fact,
opposition has been generated by the measure to abolish the practice of student
selection in the inclusion law. This has resulted in the “Fair Admission” (Admisión
Justa) bill proposed by Piñera, which has sparked a generalized debate seeking to
reestablish “selection by merit” for schools with high academic demand from
seventh grade, in addition to allowing preferential admission of students of a
socioeconomically vulnerable origin.
A relatively new challenge to the Chilean education system is that of migration.
As already stated, one of the main characteristics of this migratory movement is its
rapid growth. The immigrants are predominantly of Latin American origin, mostly
female, and usually settle in the Metropolitan Region and the northern regions of the
country (Joiko and Vásquez 2016). As regards the education system, in 2016,
enrollment of migrant students reached 1.7% of the total, double that in 2015 and
six times greater than in 2005 (Joiko and Vásquez 2016). Some 59% of the migrant
students are enrolled in primary education and 23% in secondary education, and,
unlike Chilean students, the majority (56%) of them are registered in municipal
schools and 36% in private subsidized establishments (Joiko and Vásquez 2016).
Migration and the resulting cultural and linguistic diversification – particularly in
terms of immigrants from French-speaking Haiti – in Chilean educational institu-
tions brings new challenges in terms of promoting the intercultural nature of the
school and particularly the curriculum. The urgency of this challenge is due not only
to the growing population of migrants, but also to an essential and historic charac-
teristic of the Chilean population: its enormous ethnic and cultural variety, produced
by the indigenous population and the geographic physiognomy of the country.
Therefore, the challenge that has emerged is the national discussion of the “mono-
cultural” and “homogenizing” character of the school curriculum, in addition to its
centralized nature, that is, solely national (CHM 2015). This challenge also gains
importance in the context of the new “feminist” leitmotif of the Chilean student
movement that emerged in 2018, in addition to new measures to ensure respect for
the social identity of trans students (Rojas et al. 2019). Thus, the sexist character of
education should also be discussed, with the promotion of a curriculum that includes
the notion of gender equality, among other factors.
Worth mention is also the Chilean Opt-out-movement that emerged in 2013. This
movement, like others in the world, questions the marked standardized testing
culture of the Chilean education system. This movement, called “No to SIMCE”
(No al SIMCE), which groups teachers and professors, educational scholars, as well
university and secondary students, seeks to raise awareness among teachers, stu-
dents, and parents about the adverse effects of the SIMCE test, like for instance the
stigmatization of municipal schools, in order to create a new assessment system
(Inzunza and Campos-Martínez 2016). Another action of the Chilean Opt-out-
movement took place in January 2020, when the secondary student unions called
for an unprecedented boycott against the university admission (PSU), claiming that
the test favors the socially privileged. In fact, the application of the test was
suspended and disrupted in several schools and cities.
5 Conclusions: Achievements, Challenges, and Winds of

Transformation
The main objective of this chapter was to provide an updated overview of the
fundamental, historical, social, economic, and cultural aspects of the Chilean edu-
cation system. Drawing on the study of its historical development, we can conclude
that the national education system was constructed by the independent republic in a
centralized manner, underlining its socially segmented and elitist nature. Thus,
during the nineteenth century despite the expansive efforts by the state, the situation
of primary education was still precarious, in addition to the existence of low levels of
schooling and literacy. From the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century,
the process of consolidation and modernization accelerated, being characterized by
the conflict between the teaching state and liberty education system of instruction.
Development after World War II was marked by the developmentalist project,
culminating in the governments of Frei Montalva and Salvador Allende, whose
main aim was to democratize access to education by fortifying the teaching state.
We subsequently discussed the process of restructuring the education system
within the framework of the military dictatorship, which resulted in privatization,
marketization, and liberalization, introducing the notion of a subsidiary state and
legislatively strengthening the principles of liberty of instruction and parents’ free
choice of school. As a result of the neoliberal restructuring process, the teaching state
principle has lost its influence. Thus, school and university are viewed primarily as a
preparatory stage for the employment market, and not as a sociocultural and public
space for integration. Another long-term feature of the system has been its openness
to the world and its dependence from the central countries; a feature that had favored
its attributed regional and global “model-country” and “laboratory” status since the
nineteenth century. A review of the post-dictatorship period (1990 until today)
demonstrated that the market-oriented governance regime of education introduced
during the dictatorship was continued, and accountability measures were strength-
ened. However, this period has also been characterized by universal curricular
reforms and compensatory educational reforms that have been aimed at alleviating
the effects of social discrimination in the system.
Outstanding achievements in the education system since 1990 include the gen-
eralized expansion of schooling across the population, particularly at the secondary
and tertiary level, equal access to education for female and male students, and low
rates of illiteracy. The pending problems and challenges include overcoming the
structural problem of social inequality, which is displayed in social gaps in learning
performance (measured in ILSA, for example) and differential access to education
and high levels of student’s indebtedness. Although the objectives of the inclusion
and free education laws were specifically to mitigate such effects, so far only the
latter benefits the most vulnerable student population. Another pending challenge is
that of overcoming gender inequality, expressed in a learning performance gap that

favors boys; male-dominated STEM careers at the university level; lower levels of
female employability as well as an income gap to the detriment of women. Another
remaining challenge is the low expansion rate of early childhood education for
children aged below 3 years. The problem of the low level of complex (or twenty-
first century) competences in the adult population must also be addressed. In fact,
this problem relates directly to the low development of scientific and technological
innovation of the country within the existing neo-extractivist economic model.
While we were writing this chapter, one of the most massive social uprising of
Chile’s history occurred in October 2019 during the government of right-wing
president Sebastián Piñera. This rebellion, although led by high school students,
for the first time had a cross-generational, cross-social, and nationwide character,
resulting in millions of people protesting in the streets against social inequality,
precarious working conditions, corporate abuse, low salaries and pensions, and the
privatization of natural resources like water. Also, the quality and high costs of the
privatized public services, including education, were criticized. Therefore, the so-
called Chilean model itself has been the target of the protests. Interestingly, the
protests involved not only demands from the student movements, but also from the
feminist, indigenous, and environmental movements of the last decades. The general
demand, however, of the movement was for the dignification of living conditions
through the establishment of a new constitution; an issue that was resolved in a
referendum in October 2020, whith 78.27% of the Chileans voting to replace the
military dictatorship-era constitution. It is important to stress that, according to the
UN human rights agency, during several months lasting protests and strikes, security
forces committed serious human rights abuses against the protesters including
students (Deutsche Welle 2019). Although it is still too early to draw conclusions,
the upheaval, not only opens the way to overcoming the authoritarian traces of
Pinochet’s constitution by establishing a genuinely democratic and inclusive one,
but also the possibility of building a new economic, cultural, and social model.
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The Chilean Education System: Between Expansion and Inequality

Chapter · January 2021

Cristina Alarcón López Alejandra Falabella

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Cristina Alarcón López and Alejandra Falabella

C. Alarcón López (*)

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 1

will also provide an overview of the institutional, structural, and organizational

2 Historic and Social Foundations

2.1 General Historical Background: Guiding Principles, Path

2.1.1 Post-World War II Period Until Today

“Revolution in freedom”: Eduardo Frei Montalva Reform (1963–1970)

Authoritarian and Neoliberal Restructuring (1973–1990)

Continuity and Change: Post-Dictatorship Education Policy

The Effects of Chile’s Educational Quasi-Market

The Testing Culture and Its Results

competence (level 5 or higher) in reading (OECD average: 9%) (OECD 2019). In

2.2 Political, Economic, and Cultural Contexts and Conditions

2.3 Social Conditions: Provision/Coverage of Population

One of Chile’s remarkable achievements of the post-dictatorship era has been a

Another of the problems facing the education system is coverage in early

2.4 Transition to Employment Market: Organization and Support

3 Institutional and Organizational Principles

3.1 General Principles

As already mentioned, the present Chilean education system is characterized by a

3.1.1 Student Mobilization Driving for Reforms

3.2 Educational Administration and Governance

3.2.2 Organization of Governance

• Ministry of Education (Ministerio de Educación, MINEDUC): This is the gov-

Governance of Early Education

Governance and Financing of Schools

Curriculum and Assessment Model

education, they choose one of three study plans: Technical-Professional (TP),

Governance at the Tertiary Level

3.3 Structure of the Education System According to ISCED-

EARLY EDUCTION SECONDARY SCHOOL

PRIMARY SCHOOL HIGHER EDUCATION

Fig. 1 Compulsory and voluntary education levels. (Source: OECD 2017)

3.4 Provision of Staff

4 Educational Trends and Highlighted Aspects

4.1 Performance Gap

The gap achieved by municipal and private schools is explained by a number of

4.2 ICT and Digitalization

4.3 STEM Subjects

Teaching of STEM subjects, speciﬁcally natural sciences, has received a signiﬁcant

4.4 Emerging Issues Since 2010

Additionally, recently proposed bills introduced by the right-wing government of

5 Conclusions: Achievements, Challenges, and Winds of

that of overcoming gender inequality, expressed in a learning performance gap that

Alarcón, C. (2014). Modelltransfer im Schatten des Krieges Modelltransfer im Schatten des

Consultora BíoBíoSur. (2015). Endeudamiento Nacional. Available at https://www.senado.cl/

MINEDUC. (2018c). Mecanismos de distribución de ﬁnanciamiento escolar: Evidencia

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