Improvements in the quality of basic education: Chile's experience

Chile is one of the few countries to have improved the quality of its basic education significantly in recent decades. Following the pro-market reforms of the Pinochet years, concerted efforts to improve the quality of education began in the 1990s. As a result of these efforts, there have been clear improvements in the country’s performance in national and international test scores. Chile has moved from the middle of the pack to pole position in education quality, outperforming other countries in the region in all subjects in the 2006, 2009 and 2012 PISA examinations (Programme for International Student Assessment). Improvements in quality have taken place alongside substantial cumulative improvements in access, retention, repetition and completion rates in basic education, as well as significant progress on other socioeconomic factors. This case study has found that Chile’s progress in education quality has been driven by four factors. First, the political prioritisation of improvements in quality, brought about through a combination of popular demand and efforts to build political consensus. Second, a willingness to experiment with a range of quality-focused interventions, such as teaching– learning materials, curriculum reform and longer school days. Third, a strong focus on the professionalisation of teaching and greater investment in the teaching workforce. And finally, a substantial investment in the sector overall, matched by the more precise targeting of resources to disadvantaged students and communities. If Chile is to make further gains, it must now address the twin challenges of the continuing and large disparities in educational outcomes between socioeconomic groups and average learning levels that remain too low. Despite these challenges, Chile’s experience can provide useful lessons for other countries on how to improve learning for primary school children systematically through, for example, the strategic use of national and international assessment tests, a commitment to quality-focused incremental improvements, greater engagement with the private sector and targeted investment over the long term.