Reaction paper

Chilean Education

Members:

Matias Galvez
Brian Huenupe

Teachers name: Iris Roa

Subject:

Communicative Competence: Upper

Intermediate II

Concepcin, October 2014

Chile president sends education reform to congress

According to the article Chile president sends education reform to congress published in
Yahoo! News on May 19th, 2014 President Michelle Bachelet announced the process of
the education reform which is the first stage of her promises. The president gave answers
of the proposal that students have been demanding since 2011. The educational reform
was already sent and it involves the end of subsidies to for-profit schools and the
prohibition of government-backed primary schools and kindergartens from rejecting
students on the basis of tests or interviews, (Henao, 2014). Besides, students want free
education back for everybody, as it was before Pinochet pushed the privatization of
education.

First, we consider that the end of subsidies and the prohibition involved in the educational
reform will not have a physical impact in the society, this measure would have as good as
bad results. However, as we can see in the article, the omission of some others issues
with the same importance as this could decline the impact of Presidents proposal exposed
in the article. In our opinion, it is not enough in order to improve the education quality just
changing the intervention of the government in educational administration. Because in a
concrete way, the action of the education is how the new content is learnt by the students
to form a good citizen, and this is something that these two measure would or would not
accomplish totally.

We contemplate that the pedagogical features are aspects that the government should
consider, if they want to get a real education reform or change to make a considerable
social impacts. As everyone can observe in the article, there is nothing mentioned in the
proposal about the crucial role of teachers, and how their proficiency in content and
pedagogical terms would make a well difference in the system. According to the article, the
proposal is referring just about how the economical sources are going to be administered
to promote the future changes in terms of education, having these in mind we can infer
that the possible real measure related directly to education are going to be elaborated,
discussed, evaluated, and implemented in a distant future, where maybe the main
objectives would change.

In contrast, the positive aspects that the education reform involves are the prohibition of
government-backed primary schools and kindergartens from rejecting students on the

basis of tests or interviews, for the reason that it will let people the option to choose an
educational institution for their children without the afraid of they can be rejected. Because,
it should not be allowed if these are public institutions, these schools are for everybody
and the students selection is a bad way to demonstrate support for those who need this
education. If we want a better education the example must be given by the government
first and this initiative is one step for the change. As well, this will encourage people to opt
and instill good education for their children since they are young. As we know, if we give
them good education from an early age the results are going to be better when they are
older. In our opinion, is good to know that the government is making changes in the
educational system although these are small. We as students need more attention in this
area, because we are the future of this country and obviously we want the best for our
society.

REFERENCES

Henao, L. (2014). Chile president sends education reform to congress. Yahoo

news.

Published

May

19,

2014.

Recovered

October

2nd,

2014

http://news.yahoo.com/chile-president-sends-education-reform-congress173822393.html

from