Objectives
- Create a new public education system through a series of socio-educational projects that are collaborative, participatory, inclusive, diverse, non-religious and free of charge.
- Ensure access to education and the ability to continue on an educational path, at all educational levels.
- Improve the quality of learning for all students, young people and adults.
- Strengthen students’ skills and talents in a safe and respectful learning environment.
- Ensure that schools and educational communities are at the heart of public policies aimed at improving quality, equity, and inclusion throughout the educational system.
Key pillars
- Create a new institutional framework that generaties positive and collaborative relationships between public preschools, elementary schools and high schools; establish a national network of 67 local educational service agencies; and create a Public Education Directorate within the Education Ministry.
- Strengthen the leadership skills of management teams through skills development.
- Give greater powers to educational establishments to define and direct their educational improvement plans.
- Involve families, communities and local authorities in discussing and building strategies to strengthen public education in Chile.
- Increase basic funding for public education by expanding and restructuring budgets.
Structure and new institutional framework
The structure and roles of the new institutional framework for public education will be divided among four public entities:
1. Education Ministry
Designs national education policies; sets guidelines for education policy and innovation; monitors and evaluates the work of the Public Education Directorate and assesses fulfilment of management targets and results achieved by local education service agencies; and supports public educational establishments through its regional and local structure and personnel, always respecting the individual nature of their educational projects.
2. Public Education Directorate
Part of the Education Ministry, the Public Education Directorate will be responsible for coordinating the local education service agencies, supporting collaboration across the network; ensuring that local education service agencies promote quality improvement in public educational institutions; and proposing a national policy for strengthening public education to the Education Ministry.
The Public Education Directorate will be responsible for allocating funding to establishments to enable them to meet quality standards set by the new public education system. Similarly, it will promote the coverage of public education throughout Chile to ensure access to education and continuity of educational paths for all.
3. Local Education Service Agencies
These are decentralized entities funded through the national budget that will combine two key aspects of school management: administrative-operational aspects and technical-pedagogical support.
Each of the 67 service agencies nationwide will include an average of five municipal districts. Local education service agency directors will be selected through the Senior Public Management System and appointed by the President of Chile. The duration of the directorship will be six years and may be renewed only once.
The key roles of the local education service agencies will be to:
- Develop collaborative practices among establishments within specific districts and with other local education service agencies.
- Be accountable for the processes and results of public educational establishments within their jurisdiction.
- Oversee improvements to educational standards and quality in establishments within their area.
- Develop the supply of public education in accordance with the characteristics of the local area.
- Implement professional development initiatives for management teams, teachers and teaching assistants at schools within their jurisdiction as well as for employees of the local education service agency.
- Promote and strengthen the management teams of educational establishments within their jurisdiction.
4. Local Education Councils
The primary function of the Local Education Councils will be to advise and collaborate actively with directors of local education service agencies in matters related to strategic planning, representing the interests of educational and local communities to ensure that the specific needs and conditions of each area are taken into consideration.
Each Local Education Council will be comprised of representatives from student, teacher and parent school councils, in addition to representatives from regional government, a representative from a technical training center in the region, a representative of the school of education at a university that has been accredited for at least four years, and the mayors of the municipal districts that belong to the local education service agency network.
The new system will be phased in gradually over six years to ensure that the municipalities have time to finalize their administrative cycles and ensure a successful transfer to the new institutional framework. A transition plan has been prepared to improve the municipal system prior to the transfer, facilitate the installation of local education service agencies, and improve management of municipal education.
The transition plan will be implemented through agreements signed between the Education Ministry and municipalities.