President Bachelet: “We will continue to move forward with the education reform that we proposed, which includes early childhood education.”
The addition to the preschool is part of the goal of creating 4,500 new nurseries by the end of the Bachelet administration.
The President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, accompanied by the Director of the Presidency’s Sociocultural Directorate, Paula Forttes, and the Executive Director of Fundación Integra, Oriele Rossel, was in the San Barnardo district of Santiago this morning to inaugurate the nursery at the Las Hortensias Preschool. “Today, now the preschool is ten years’ old, we are inaugurating its nursery. And, Madam Mayor, they tell me that there is already a waiting list, so clearly we need to continue to work to open up more spaces,” said the President in her opening remarks.
The addition to the preschool is part of the Government’s goal of creating 4,500 new nurseries. The nonprofit preschool organization, Fundación Integra, and the Chilean National Nursery Schools Council (Junji) will between them add 500 new nurseries nationwide in 2015. This year, Integra alone will enable over 4,000 children to attend 244 new facilities that the institution is opening up across the country. This comes in addition to the nearly 1,600 children who will join educational communities for intermediate levels built according to the best
standards. “We are not only focusing on expansion. We are expanding while maintaining quality. Quality does not only refer to infrastructure. It also means hiring more people -10 people in this case- who can support the work of educating and training children both in the new nursery room and in the school as a whole,” the President explained. She added, “That is the new way the government is looking to move forward: with good projects and a community that is completely committed, as is the case here.”
The President then turned her attention to the new institutional structure that will oversee the operation and work of nurseries and preschools. “To that end, as part of the reform we are creating two agencies that have already been approved. The first is the Early Childhood Education Administration and the other is the Office of the Undersecretary of Preschool Education. Beginning next year, they will be fully operational and will focus on improving the educational experiences of thousands of children. These agencies will ensure that the next generations have the stimuli, lessons and protection that all of us want to give our children from the earliest stages of their infancy- even before they learn to walk.”
As she brought her comments to a close, the President reaffirmed her commitment to the reforms: “We will continue to move forward with the education reform that we proposed, which includes early childhood education,” she said. She continued, “We are moving forward. It is not an easy road because it is always challenging to implement changes. The key is to maintain open dialogue, talking with everyone and focusing on the most important part of all of this: the boys and girls and young people.”