Education in Chile is divided in preschool, primary school, secondary school, and technical or higher education (university).
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The levels of education in Chile are:
According to the Constitution, primary and secondary school are mandatory for all Chileans.
The Chilean 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.
The reform of 1965 have 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.
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:
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 unprecedented milestone in Latin America at the time. As of 2008, the LGE (Ley General de Educación), 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.
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).
Non-subsidized 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$451,824 (less than US$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 Antártica.[1][2]
Students can choose between 25 'traditional' universities (public or private) and over 50 private ones, which are increasingly growing in number. However many of the newer private universities are considered of inferior quality when comparing to the older traditional universities. The difference in quality is accompanied by large differences in prestige rankings, PSU scores for admittance and years of government accreditation.
There is a single, transparent admission system to all traditional universities which integrate the so-called Council of Rectors (Consejo de Rectores). The system, called PSU, an acronym for University Selection Test (Prueba de Selección Universitaria), is very similar to the United States' SAT Reasoning Test. The design and the evaluation of the test is performed by the University of Chile, while the system itself is managed by the Ministry of Education (Ministerio de Educación).
The test consists of two mandatory exams, one in Mathematics and one in Language. There are also two adittional specific exams, Sciences (including Chemistry, Physics and Biology fields) and History, depending on which undergraduate program the student wishes to apply to. 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 for the various programs offered.
Even though it's not mandatory, several non-'traditional', private universities uses PSU scores to select their students.
All universities and technical schools in Chile charge enrollment and tuition costs. There are several scholarship programs and a "solidarity fund" loan program granted by the government to students of 'traditional' universities, based on merit or need. There are also loans programs through private banks with the state acting as guarantee available for students of private, non-'traditional' universities and technical schools; they have been criticized for charging high interest rates.
In 2010, a total of 250,752 persons took both mandatory PSU tests.[3]
The school year is divided into semesters. The first semester runs from the end of February or early March to July. Following a two-week winter break school resumes and lasts until late November or early December, followed by summer vacations.
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