why Chile is the best in Latin America

For years, Chile has been the best among Latin American countries in Pisa, an international exam that measures the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds from OECD countries. In the 2022 edition of the exam, the country had a reduction in grades, feeling the effects of the pandemic like other nations that participated in the test, but continued to present the best results in the region. The secrets to being above other Latin American countries include measures not adopted in Brazil, such as quality control and requirements, decentralization of management and the concern for training and attracting better teachers.

Like Brazil, Chile invests 6% of GDP in education, but with better results in recent editions. In Pisa 2022, in which 81 countries and economies participated, Chilean students achieved 412 points in mathematics, 448 in reading and 444 in science. Brazil achieved 379 points in mathematics, 410 in reading and 403 in science. Both countries have been stagnating for a few years, but Chile’s situation ends up being more comfortable as it is closer to the performance of better placed countries.

While 73% of Brazilian students do not know the minimum amount of mathematics to apply in simple everyday tasks, this number drops to 44% among Chileans. In reading, 50% of Brazilians did not reach level 2 of proficiency in the test, which ranges from 1 to 6; this failure rate is lower among Chileans, at 34%. In science, while 55% of Brazilians do not have the minimum knowledge for their age group, also at level 1 in the subject, only 36% of Chileans are in these conditions.

Chilean students participated in Pisa for the first time in 2000. That year, they only took the reading test and obtained 410 points. They did not participate in the next edition, in 2003, and only carried out the assessment again in 2006. From 2000 to 2006, the country rose 32 points in reading. With this score, Chile went from level 1 to level 2, where it has remained ever since. This is a result below the OECD average, but much higher compared to other Latin American countries.

“The school must have a curriculum, assessment and textbook. Chile’s curriculum is much more prescriptive than ours and they have a serious assessment. We don’t have that in Brazil”, says education specialist Ilona Becskeházy. She says that the Andean country hired the OECD to guide the educational policies that should be adopted.

“In this country there is a historical concern with education that is reflected in a constant public discussion on the subject and in educational policies that seek to improve the conditions and learning of Chilean students”, says Verónica Cabezas, executive director of Elige Educar. Elige Educar is a Chilean NGO supported by public and private resources. Among the objectives, it wants to attract high-performing young people to educational careers and think about policies to retain good professionals in the area.

Changes in the educational system

In recent decades, the country has made progress by adopting a complex “Education Quality Assurance System”. Until 2009, there were two bodies focused on education, the Ministry of Education and the National Education Council, as is the case in Brazil. With the approval of the General Education Law, the new system was implemented and the Education Superintendency and the Education Quality Agency were created.

The Education Superintendency is responsible for monitoring, including through complaints, whether schools are following the rules proposed by the Ministry of Education. The Education Quality Agency must evaluate student learning and school performance, in addition to guiding teaching units so that they can improve. Everyone works in coordination to achieve good results. Of the four bodies, the National Education Council is the one that remains most distant from the day-to-day activities of schools. This is because he is responsible for reviewing the common curriculum base and national assessment plans.

For Célia Seabra, a teacher at a municipal school in Teresina (PI) and a doctor in information science, the main factor in Chile is the decentralization of education. “Chile adopted decentralization of education. They offer didactic autonomy in the classroom. There is public policy that guides, but also this autonomy in the classroom”, she explains.

Seabra believes that it is important for the school community to be able to adapt content that must be worked on according to local demands. “It is very complicated to place, for example, riverside schools, quilombolas or schools where children have alternation due to planting in the same parameters. We have social, economic and geological diversity that must be considered”, she exemplifies. Autonomy that, according to her, should be monitored by education bodies.

For Ilona Becskeházy, more than the federal government, it is up to state departments and municipalities to mirror Chile’s initiatives and seek to take the lead in the educational changes they desire. “This way, at some point someone will reach a level of excellence. As is the example of Sobral”, she adds. The expert believes that with political will and access to international practices with good results, most of Brazilian educational problems can be resolved.

Keeping an eye on teacher training

Verónica Cabezas also highlights the importance of strengthening teacher training. “Data collected by Choose Educar on the topic has contributed to the discussion, such as what 11% of teachers [do Chile] they abandon their career after the first year of professional practice”, he states.

While the NGO Elige Educar has projects to attract teachers with good academic performance, in Brazil this concern is practically non-existent – a survey carried out by the Instituto Alfa e Beto, in 2016, found that the majority of Brazilian pedagogy students obtained Enem grades below the national average. One of the programs offered by the Chilean NGO is “I want to be a Prof”. Here, students interested in careers in education are encouraged through personalized tutoring and guidance on their professional future.

For Claudia Costin, in Brazil, there are gaps in the pedagogy and teaching courses themselves. She believes that more than just knowing the content, the teacher has to be able to teach it to the students. When commenting on Brazil’s results in Pisa 2022, the president of Instituto Singulares stated that “we train teachers without any or very little connection to practice. Chile, for example, has a national law that requires there to be a dialogue between theory and practice in the training that teachers receive at college.”