Education and the Strike in Chile

What is education? How does the family influence education? How does homogeneous grouping influence learning? What education do we want as a society for ourselves? These are some of the questions that are being asked in the educational conflict in Chile and they make us reflect on the interaction between the individual and society and how this can in general affect our society and in particular our girls in the Hogar and in the House of Hope.

Education in Chile, public as well as private, is living through a crucial time. The student movement that has lasted almost three months without academic activity in schools and universities, risking for a small percentage of the student population the loss of the school year (the House of Hope girls are not in this group), began as just another student demonstration, but soon turned into a social demonstration with a force that has not been seen in many years, with marches and protests of 200,000 persons expressing their discontent with a perverse system. It is a symbol of an accumulation of symptoms of the cancer affecting our society in general, and the classrooms in particular: social segregation.

Social segregation in Chile is abysmal, and is evident in education with its most visible face. In the international test PISA which measures among other points the rate of social segregation, Chile is the second worst country in the world for segregation of students according to social class; that is, the rich study with the rich and the poor (excluded) study with the poor, which results in direct prejudice against cultural wealth.

The present educational system was instituted through the Constitution in the time of the dictatorship in the year 1980, at which time there was no participation of the principal actors in education: professors, students, theorists, academics, much less the Chilean people. As a result, in the 30 years the system has existed, it has tremendously affected the quality of education at all levels, with the State not fulfilling its role of guarantying the quality of education, and completely ignoring the growth of persons, as well as the lack of regulation regarding profits in universities and institutions which legally ought not to make a profit, but they trick the system by creating organizations with another RUT in order to generate private profits and not reinvest in education. Another subject, no less important, is the high fees and the gigantic monetary costs of the studies. Our university educational system is one of the most expensive in the world, considering the per capita income in Chile (US$360 per capita per month), compared with the annual fees that go from US$5,000 to US$10,000. Add to that the fact that the State grants students a credit (loan) in order to pay for their studies in which they end up paying up to 3 times the original cost in installments for 15 years at a high rate of interest.

On the other hand, the teaching profession is one of the worst paid in our society. The labor conditions of teachers are precarious, which produces a negative effect on the children in our country.

The possibility of access to scholarships is connected to placement on the PSU exam for access to the University which is the standard and does not take into consideration all the inequalities which we see among the schools in just two localities of our county with different socioeconomic levels, and consequently, with different preparation to face this test for university selection. Hence in the scholarships for academic merit, the most excluded are the ones coming from the most vulnerable sectors.

In summary, this situation directly affects our girls and even more so due to the effect of the deficiencies they experience, such as the situation of poverty and the vulnerability and violence of those who have been victims. Hence when the girls from the Hogar and other vulnerable sectors go to school they are not receiving a quality education. Their companions and friends are not always a motivating factor; much less their families who see school not as a source of education but as a means of maintenance, where their children can spend time and receive a plate of food. All these variables produce a significant breach between high school education in different socioeconomic sectors and the possibility of access to higher education. Even when it is possible to enter private universities or technical institutes, the quality of education at the elementary level that our girls (now young women) have received is so low they need to make gigantic efforts in order to raise their level of knowledge.

We know that education and knowledge have power, and this linked to faith in God is a vital tool. Our job at the House of Hope is to give not only academic possibilities but to give first of all the possibility of knowing God through genuine love, and try to level out the injustice, through God who is just and powerful.

I ask your prayers that our country may find a just solution in education, as this will help our present as well as our future girls. I also ask prayer for all our girls in the Hogar and the young women in the House of Hope, that God will motivate them to continue their studies and be able to escape from the circle of poverty. Pray for Amelia who is going through a turbulent time and for all the persons working to protect and help others. Many thanks for reading this and for supporting justice and equality.

Sincerely, your servent,

Daniel Trujillo
House of Hope Director