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Chilean education focuses on transcending traditional methods
She explained that when he was minister, Lagos began a process of revamping the education system that for the first time in Chile focused strongly on providing qualitative pedagogic content as well as equal opportunities of access. During the 1980s, the implemented reforms leaned more toward providing more educational access and changing the financial and administrative policies of the system. With the decentralization of the public education system, a new one was created based on a state subsidy to the municipal and private institutions. However, this educational subsidy was insufficient, consequently, constituting a deterioration of quality.
The reform that begun during the first Concertacion government managed to establish education as a fundamental priority, in addition to tripling the resources allocated for it. This initiated the transformation of the scholastic curriculum that Aylwin is furthering. “Today, we are changing what our children are learning, and how they are learning from kindergarten to high school. In 1996, children’s school time had been changed to 12 years, which means eliminating the two shift school programs and making one single schedule with extended hours. This also means building nearly 20,000 classrooms and recreational areas,” added Aylwin while concurring that they are halfway through this process. “The goal that our new government has established is first to maintain the above-mentioned priority —if we don’t do this, the efforts will dilute — and second, is to sustain the investment rhythm that the ministry has had during the previous decade, which was very high.”
In addition, she has set as her priorities the classroom and what occurs within it, the use of the Internet in the education system, and implementing the most innovative pedagogic methodology for education in this new era. Providing professors with the necessary tools for these transformations is an equally important task for the government.
“We feel that the Internet is a democratizing instrument because children from the most remote parts of our country will have access to the Net and to the knowledge therewith, therefore allowing them to be competitive. This will enable us to shorten the gap with more developed nations. However, we also run the risk of lagging behind and that instead of being a democratizing tool, the Internet could become another factor in the inequality between countries.” They are also exploring the advantages presented by globalization, such as, the opportunity to receive an education — even from other countries — through the Internet.
Aylwin believes that the most significant challenge facing the educational reform is increasing the participation of school owners, professors and parents. “This reform envisions a cultural transformation that requires a greater involvement of society in education.”
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Table of Contents New president focuses on future while reconciling the past |
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Modernizing Chile’s education system has been the agenda for the last decade. President Ricardo Lagos Escobar’s stoic emphasis on making the Internet the central tool for development is not something new. As Minister of Education Mariana Aylwin describes with a peculiar note, “President Lagos was Minister of Education when my father (past president Patricio Aylwin) was president and now 10 years later I am his Minister of Education. What a coincidence!”
According to the minister, with respect to the Internet, 100 percent of post high school public institutions are connected and 50 percent of basic schools. This constitutes 70 students per computer. Nearly half of the professors have received training. The goal is to achieve 30 students per computer and 100 percent of professors fully trained with their own personal computer.