To reflect on the study “The illusion of excellence: Proposal for paid education in Chile”, which demystifies private education, in Palabra Que Es Noticia we spoke with one of its authors, Tomás Ilabaca, doctor in Social Sciences from the University Catholic of Leuven in Belgium and researcher at the Center for Development Studies.
“There are paid schools that have the same or worse results than public or subsidized private schools,” said Ilabaca. “There are consequences because the State does not have tools to suggest improvements to paid private schools, and there we see that there is a violation.”
Ilabaca pointed out that “in Chile two principles are well established: freedom of education and that parents can choose the school for their children. “This cannot mean that, faced with poor results and a bad school climate, the State cannot demand improvements and certain minimums from schools.”
«Trap» in results
«We analyze the results of the SIMCE tests from 2019 to 2022. If one takes the group of private schools and divides them into quintiles, those in quintile one in many years have no differences with the public sector. The difference is that when public schools have poor results, the State can support. That doesn’t happen in paid schools,” explained Ilabaca.
“There are schools in the fifth quintile that have results similar to public schools,” he continued. «There is a catch in this: these results are presented privately. “Where there are the most differences in the private paid sector is in the evaluation of the parents.”
Quality of education
«There is a trap that ultimately goes against what the parents themselves could expect. There are indeed private schools that do it very well. The problem is that, by law, the Quality Agency must present the results in aggregate form, and that does not allow parents to identify that there are certain differences and that not all public schools do it badly. There is diversity.”
Ilabaca also addressed the issue of selection as a problem of organizational culture. «The student mobilization of the National Institute has always existed. “There has to be an accommodation there, but in some transparent way, that reflects the true quality of the aforementioned establishments.”
«In terms of student coexistence, there were many with depression, but these are indicators that perhaps are not so important in public discussion. However, if the school does not respect you as a parent, that is worrying,” commented Ilabaca. «I believe that there is a trap in how educational results are presented and that is a task for the State. “There is the challenge of generating regulation so that, in the case of private schools, the State can advise them and that the rules of the game are the same for everyone.”
