Educating for Transformation: A Comprehensive Roadmap Addressing the Historic Challenges of Public Education

Original article: Educar para transformar: Una hoja de ruta ante el desafío histórico de la Educación Pública

By Katherine Rozas and Amaru Vásquez, President and Director of the Metropolitan Regional Teachers’ Association

In a few days, presidential and parliamentary elections will take place, a process that will define the political and social direction of the country for the upcoming years.

In light of this, the Metropolitan Regional Teachers’ Association of Chile held a series of regional assemblies across various communities, leading to a dialogue that identified and systematized critical issues concerning Public Education. We believe it is essential for candidates to incorporate these themes into their programs and commitments to the nation.

The document titled «Union Principals for the Defense of Public Education» is the culmination of a collective and democratic effort where educators analyzed the root causes of the educational crisis and proposed concrete solutions to tackle it.

The Public Education Crisis

Currently, only about one-third of the national student enrollment is in public institutions, while the State allocates less than 4.5% of GDP to educational spending, forcing families to cover over 30% of the total costs. These figures are telling: they reflect the persistence of a model that subordinates education to market logic, undermining its social, communal, and transformative roles.

The Local Public Education Services (SLEP), intended to strengthen state oversight, have often reproduced the same bureaucratic barriers and distance that characterized municipal management. Rather than returning pedagogical leadership to communities, they have become administrative structures that suffocate school life with paperwork, fragmentation, and overload.

For an Education with Teacher Dignity

From our union perspective, there can be no viable public education without dignity for those who uphold it. The current Teaching Career, designed more for control than support, has generated stress, competition, and mistrust.

We propose a structural reform that replaces punitive logic with a model of mentorship, continuous training, and professional collaboration. Assessment should be a tool for learning rather than punishment. Pedagogical autonomy, job stability, and salary recognition must be understood as rights, not incentives bound to tests or evaluations.

Furthermore, it is urgent to address excessive workload and bureaucratic overreach that harm the health and sense of purpose of educators. Recognizing the role of course heads, strengthening school coexistence teams, and restoring the role of counselors are essential steps towards rehumanizing schools and reinstating their educational function.

Inclusion, Coexistence, and Citizenship

A transformative public education must also be inclusive, diverse, and free from violence. This demands updating Decree 170 with a rights-based and intercultural approach, monitoring the use of resources from the School Integration Program (PIE), and strengthening pedagogical teams that implement inclusion in classrooms.

At the same time, it is imperative to implement comprehensive and ongoing Sexual Education that fosters democratic citizenship and promotes respect for all identities. This is not merely an addition to the curriculum but a vital tool for preventing violence, discrimination, and abuse in school communities.

Toward a New Educational Horizon

Defending public education is not just about resisting the degradation of the system; it is about envisioning a new national educational project. This requires stable baseline funding, meaningful participation from school communities, and a State that assumes its responsibility as a guarantor of the right to learn and teach in dignified conditions.

The «Union Principals for the Defense of Public Education» is an invitation to reclaim that horizon. They are not a list of sector-specific demands but a comprehensive proposal to restore the public, democratic, and humanizing character of education.

In this electoral context, we issue a clear call for candidates to prioritize public education, committing to concrete financing, participation, and teacher dignity. Because without public education, there is no democracy, and without dignified teachers, there is no possible future.

By Katherine Rozas and Amaru Vásquez, President and Director of the Metropolitan Regional Teachers’ Association.-