2. 1st Wave of Reform
1980: Military Coup (General Pinochet)
• Objective: Promote greater efficiency.
• Main Interventions:
1- Decentralization
2- Privatization
3- Voucher System
4- Labor Deregulation
5- Student Assessment
• Higher Education: Free market, minimum requirements for building a
university. Up to 80 universities created during that period.
• Students’ Intervention: During this period the action of the students was
limited by the repression of the dictatorship.

3. 2nd Wave of Reform
1990: Socialist Government
• Objective: Improve quality and equity.
• Main Interventions:
1- Equity
2- Quality
3- Teachers’ Statute
4- Greater Transparency
5- Focus on classroom

4. 3rd Wave of Reform
1996: Socialist Government (FSD)
• Objective: Improve quality and equity.
• Main Interventions:
1- Extending the School Day
2- A New Curriculum Framework
3- Secondary School Innovation
4- Teacher Professionalism

5. Comparison of 3 Reform Waves
Chile’s Education reform cycles
Period 1980s 1990-96 1996 on
Direction Top-Down Mainly Bottom-up Integrating 'macro" structures
with" micro' school culture
Preferred
Tools
Formal rules,
Mandates
Informal rules,
Incentives
Accountability & information
infrastructure
Objective Efficiency Quality & Equity Improved performance across all
dimension
Focus System
structure
School culture Modern Institutions

6. Higher Education
• 2011: 60 universities, 45 professional institutes and 73 technical
centers.
• University enrolment grew between the years 1990 and 2004 in
approximately a 68%, while in the higher technical education fell a
25.8% in the same period.
• Until 1973 the existing universities were funded
by the State up to an 80% of their budgetary needs. During the period
of the dictatorship the State contributions diminished very drastically,
and the spending per student fell a 23%. Since the so-called “return to
democracy”, the State contributions increased significantly.
With respect to the funding of the students there are three types of aid:
Scholarships - Solidary Fund (which is only for students enrolled in
universities of the Council of Rectors (CRUNCH) located on the three
lowest quintiles) - Credit with the Endorsement of the State (CAE)
(created in 2005 and offered by commercial banks)

7. Challenges of Education in Chile
• The key issue in Chilean education is poor quality (ex
40% of 4th grade students are unable to understand
simple written messages).
• A lot of Chilean policy makers are not aware that
learning models can have a dramatic impact on student
learning.
• 80% of secondary education teachers dictate more
than they teach.
• Also 80% of 20,000 university professors have less than
doctoral training.
• A lot of qualified staff leave the country due to salaries
being as much as 3 times higher in other countries.

8. The Uprising
The penguin - March 2006
• In May 2006 begins the mobilization of secondary students
which will be increasing progressively, until it reached a
national level, mobilizing 600 mil students.
• Demands: 1) To repel the Constitutional Organic Law of
education (LOCE), together with the Decree 524, published
on May 11 of 1990, which regulates the Students Centers,
2) The end of municipalized education, 3) The study and
reformulation of the full school day (JEC), 4) free university
admission test (PSU), 5) Free School Bus passes.
• Results: A study Committee was formed, composed by 80
members, which proposed minimal changes and no reform
of importance. The profit situation remained unchanged.

9. • Students were more organized. Went out on
hunger strikes, marched in demonstrations.
• Demands: 1)More accessible & affordable
university system, 2) Higher quality & equal
funding for elementary & middle school.
• Results:
The Uprising
Arab Spring – August 2011

10. The Uprising
June 2012
• Joint proposal of the National Confederation of Chilean Students
(CONFECH in Spanish), the National Coordinator of Secondary Students
(CONES in Spanish) and the Coordinating Assembly of Secondary students
(ACES in Spanish), regarding a new national system of education, was
made public.
• Demands: 1) To create a New National System of
Education, public, free, autonomous, democratic, pluralistic, intercultural
and of excellence, 2) The increase of the basal contributions for State
universities, 3) New basal contributions to Municipal education, 4) The
creation of a new Public System of Higher Technical
Education, free, democratic and of quality, coordinated with the technical
vocational school education, 5) Progressive increase of public expenditure
in education, in order to achieve, within a medium-term horizon, a 6% of
the country’s GDP. 6) “De-municipalization” of education by creating new
public institutions to respond to the new principles, 7) Eradication of the
profit motive in education and regulation for quality.

11. References
• Delannoy, F. (2000). Education reforms in Chile,1980-98: A
lesson in pragmatism. Education Reform and Management
Publication Series, vol I, No 1.
• Parry,T. (1997). Decentralization and Privatization: Education
Policy in Chile. Journal of Public Policy , Vol. 17, No. 1 (Jan. -
Apr., 1997), pp. 107-133