Schools Reflect Segregation in Chile’s Educational System
Schools Reflect Segregation in Chile’s Educational System
By Marianela Jarroud
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And of 50 countries measured in 2010 in terms of social segregation in schools by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) International Institute for Educational Planning, Chile was the most unequal, assigned 53 points – far higher than neighbouring countries like Uruguay (38), Brazil, Argentina (39) and Colombia (40).
In 2006, tens of thousands of students took to the streets, leading a wave of protests that posed a serious challenge to the government of moderate socialist President Michelle Bachelet during her first term in office (2006-2010).
They were demanding a reform of the educational system implemented by the 1973-1990 dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, which transferred the administration of public schools from the Education Ministry to the country’s 345 municipalities, and permitted the creation of state-subsidised private schools.
The student movement is demanding that public primary and secondary schools be put back under the control of the central government.
Bachelet, who was sworn in for a second term in March this year, is facing the challenge of reforming an educational system that is the main source of social discontent, and which prompted students around the country to pour into the streets again, in even larger numbers, under the administration of right-wing former president Sebastián Piñera (2010-2014).
In nearly every country around the world, the state is the main provider of education, as a public service.But in Chile, any private individual or institution can open a school, wherever they want. And if they are able to draw students, the state has to pay them a subsidy per student.
Subsidised private schools with large student bodies can be profitable, because they also charge parents tuition.
Several different kinds of education coexist in Chile: private education, subsidised private education – both for-profit and non-profit – and municipal public schools.
The allotment of funds to municipal schools not only depends on the coffers of each municipality, many of which are severely cash-strapped, but also on aspects like student attendance levels.
When attendance is poor, funding shrinks – and this has serious repercussions for the poorest areas.
More:
http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/05/schools-reflect-segregation-chiles-educational-system/