Levels Of Education
The levels of education in Chile are :
Pre-school : For children up to 5 years old, optional for 1 grade.
Primary school : (Ensenanza basica) for children from 5-13 years old, divided into 8 grades.
Secondary school : (Ensenanza media) for teenagers from 13-18 years old, divided into 4 grades.
Secondary school is also divided into :
Scientific-humanities approach : From Tercero Medio (11th grade) in high school, students can choose a major in either science (education in maths, education in science education in chemistry and education in biology), or humanities (education in literature, education in history, education in philosophy), which means they will get more lessons in the area of their choice.
Technical-Professional education : Students receive "extra" education in the so called "technical" areas, such as education in electricity, education in mechanics, education in metal assembly etc. This second type of education is more typical of public schools (Liceos), to give students from poorer areas a chance to work right away after completion of of highschool as a way to fund a possible higher education career later.
University : a system divided in public or "state" universities and a private system.
 |
| A old woman reading, supported by Chilecalifica. |
Primary And Secondary School Levels :
According to the constitution, primary and secondary school are mandatory for all Chileans. The Chileans state provides an extensive system of education vouchers that covers almost 90% of primary and secondary students. This extensive voucher system is based on a direct payment to the schools based on daily attendance, in practical terms, if the students moves to a different school, their attendance payments move too.
Schools are either public (nearly all owned by the municipality of the commune in which the school is located) or private, which may receive government subsidies.
Basic
The reform of 1965 established Basic Education as the initial cycle of schooling. Before that, by 1920, the Chilean legislation had established 4 years of minimum mandatory education. By 1929 the minimum had been increased to 6 years. Finally, in 1965 a compulsory Basic Lev 2 cycles and 8 grades, ideally designed for ages 6 to 13.
Secondary
The Secondary School is divided between Scientific-Humanist (regular), Technical-Professional (Vocational) and Artistic , always with a duration of 2 years. The first two years are the same for the three kinds of schooling while third and fourth years are differentiated according to the orientation of the school.The schools offering Technical-Professional programs are denominated:
Industrial Schools : Education in electricity, education in mechanics education in electronics education in informatics among others.
Commercial Schools : education in management, education in accountancy education in secretary and similar.
Technical Schools : education in fashion, education in culinary, education in nursery and the like.
Polyvalent Schools : offering careers of more than one of those listed above.
Compulsory education only covered the 8 years of the Basic Cycle, but since May 7 of 2003, a constitutional reform under the government of President Ricardo Lagos established free and compulsory Secondary Education for all the inhabitants of Chile up to 18 years old, placing on the State the responsibility of ensuring access to it. This ensures thirteen years of compulsory schooling which was an unprecendented milestone in Latin America at the time. As of 2008, the LGE (Ley General de Educacion), which is currently pending, provides and guarantees 14 years of free compulsory education.
The coverage of the Chilean Educational System is practically universal, like in most highly developed countries, showing enrollment rates that represent that reality. Enrollment in Basic Education reaches 99.7% of children between 6 and 14 years, while the coverage of secondary education enrollment is 87.7% of adolescents between 15 and 18 years.
 |
| Chilean students exposing a PowerPoint about America, in Escuela Barreales, 2008. |
Education Costs
Public schools and subsidized private schools with voluntary tuition may charge a fee for the admittance process, which is fixed by law.The fee's cost was CLP$3.500 in 2008 (less than US$7). The annual price of enrollment is zero for primary school and cannot be higher than CLP$3.500 for secondary school. A tuition fee may be charged only in secondary school, but it is completely voluntary for the parent. Subsidized private schools with mandatory tuition have the same admittance and annual enrollment costs as in public schools, but they are allowed to charge a mandatory monthly tuition which cannot be higher than 4 USE (Education Subsidy Unit). This was equal to CLP$60,748.86 in 2008 (about US$116).
Private schools are free to set what they will charge, which may include, admittance, enrollment tuition costs,as well as a fee for being selected into the school (paid once and can be quite high in some exclusive schools ) and a payment to the so-called Parents Center (Centro de Padres).
There is a third type of public school, the so-called Delegated Administration schools which are owned by the State but managed and financed by private corporations. These cannot charge for admittance and the annual enrollment cost is the same as in public schools. They are allowed to charge for tuition, but this is wholly voluntary for the parent. The cost is 1.5 UTM (Monthly Tax Unit) annually, which was CLP$865) in 2008.
There is a fourth type of public school, administered by the Ministry of Education and completely financed by the State. Currently, there is only one such school : Escuela Villa Las Estrellas in Antartica.
Admission to university
Students can choose between 25 state universities and over 50 private ones which are increasingly growing in number.However many of the newer private universities are : considered of interior quality when comparing to the older traditional universities. The difference in quality is accompanied by large difference in prestige rankings and PSU scores for admittance.
There is one single and very transparent admission system to all state universities and to several of the oldest private universities which integrate the so called Council of Rectors (Consejo de Rectores). The system, called PSU, an acronym for University Selection Test (Prueba de Seleccion Universitaria), is very similar to the U>S.SAT Reasoning Test. The design and the correction of the test is performed by the University Of Chile,whole the itself is managed by the Ministry of Education (Ministerio de Educacion).
The test consists in two mandatory exams, mathematics, and language, plus several other specific exams, like chemistry, physics biology, history etc., depending on what career the student wishes to apply. The cumulative grade point average achieved during secondary school is also taken into account in the final admission score. Every university assigns different weightings to the results of the various exams. There is a big gap in PSU scores between poorer students, mostly coming from public schools, and more wealthy students, specially those coming from private schools, therefore poorer students have much smaller chances to enter the most prestigious universities, which hold high entry scores. The most talented poor students, those who achieve high PSU scores, can obtain up to 100% of scholarships from the Government, plus, several universities have their own scholarship programmes to assist poorer students, though funds are insufficient. For students who obtained high enough scores to enter a public university or to an accredited private university, there is a system of government backed loans which is offered through several commercial banks, but the amount and terms of the credits not necessary fit the needs of the students.
According to media and official statistics, in 2006 a total 241,390 students took the PSU test.
