In 1958 it granted $97,300 (U.S.) for a 3-year program to train 600 nurses aides for Centros Sanitarios Rurales (Rural Sanitation Centers). In the same year UNICEF made a grant of $126,800 to improve nutrition in selected rural areas. Under the program, milk was distributed, school gardens were organized, and nutrition courses were given to 240 rural school teachers.

In 1961 UNICEF granted $90,000 to develop a study course in public health and health education and to train normal school students so that henceforth the course content would be taught to all elementary pupils. Specifically, UNICEF contributed equipment, teaching materials, implements and utensils for the normal schools; vehicles for supervisors; and scholarships for the training of selected personnel. The overall project, jointly sponsored by the Ministry of Public Health and the Ministry of Education, shows the country's earnest concern about health, which is described in an official report as the "first specific objective of Chilean primary education.

Private Foundation Aid

Numerous North American foundations have contributed educational aid to Chile, mostly in the form of scholarships. Two of these have participated extensively in developmental programs within the country. One is the Rockefeller Foundation, whose activities in rural school construction and technical development of rural education were described in chapter 9. The other is the Ford Foundation, whose grants are the most extensive.

Projects Aided by the Ford Foundation.-Since 1960 the Ford Foundation has granted several million dollars to various educational projects in Chile, most of them at the university level. The University of Chile has been the chief beneficiary. It has received grants for the university regional colleges, the graduate program in economics, the research program of the Institute of Education, a new graduate program in business and public administration, and a workshop on educational test construction.

The University of Concepción has received a substantial grant to reorganize its science and mathematics programs. Pontifical Catholic University of Chile has a similar grant for its program of physical and mathematical sciences. The State Technical University has re

Ministerio de Educación Pública. Aspectos de la Situación Social y Económica Que Afecta a la Educación. P. 80. s Ibid.

Ministry of Public Health and Ministry of Education. Integration of Public Health and Health Education in Plans and Curriculum of Normal Schools. Santiago, 1961. P. 1.

ceived help on overall university development planning, and the National Commission on Educational Planning was awarded a large grant in May 1963.

In selecting recipients for grants at the university level the Ford Foundation has endeavored to support programs which will (1) have been an impact on higher education in general, (2) help universities respond better than previously to the country's social and economic needs, and (3) solidify desirable trends and reforms."

Scholarships

In proportion to its population Chile has received the largest number of scholarships for study abroad of all Latin American countries. Reports for 1962 stated that the number of such scholarships had exceeded 450,8 most of them for postgraduate study. More than 200 of the 450 grantees were in the United States, holding scholarships granted by the U.S. Government, various foundations, and numerous universities."

European nations also contribute scholarships in the following numbers: France, about 40; Germany, about 40; Italy, 20 to 25; Great Britain, about 25.10 Other sources of scholarships are Brazil, Canada, Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia. The Chilean Commission of Intellectual Cooperation aids in the selection of most grantees.

Scholarships are also received from the United Nations and the Specialized Agencies, such as UNESCO; and from the Organization of American States.

Scholarships from all these sources have been a form of aid-economically, culturally, and educationally. If one considers the cost of each of the 450 annual scholarships at $2,000, then Chile receives $900,000 aid from foreign sources in the form of scholarships. It would be difficult to measure the value of the scholarship to each recipient or to estimate his contribution as the result of the experience. These are intangibles on which no accurate monetary value can be placed. Nor is it necessary to do so. The extent of Chilean participation in scholarship programs is evidence enough of the value which Chile places upon them.

7 The Ford Foundation. November 8, 1963. (Letter to author.)

Aspectos de la Situación Social y Económica Que Afecta a la Educación. op.cit., p. 82. • Ibid.

10 Ibid.

12. Progress, Problems, and Prospects

A

FTER A CENTURY AND A HALF of independence, what have been Chile's solid adhievements in education? What problems remain unresolved? What are the prospects for the future? These questions are the concern of this final chapter, which seeks to synthesize and summarize some of the observations of preceding chapters.

Progress

To judge educational progress in Chile one must use a standard of some kind. One may use the past as a basis of comparison. He may use other countries in similar situations. Or he may use national needs and goals as articulated by responsible leaders. If a Chilean uses only the first two standards, the result may be self-satisfaction about the great strides already made. When he uses the third standard, he becomes less complacent about past achievements and becomes more concerned with current realities because he recognizes that educational progress to date represents hardly more than a step in the direction of long-range objectives.

Chile has a record of educational achievement of which it can be justly proud. Its educational system ranks among the best in Latin America. Its illiteracy rate of about 20 percent is among the lowest. The average number of school years completed is 4.4, one of the highest averages of Latin America. Its universities hold high rank in Latin America and some of their departments compare favorably with those of universities anywhere. The growth of university and secondary enrollment, academic and vocational, since World War II reflects the trends toward increasing democratization, industrialization, and urbanization in Chilean society.

Among outstanding educational leaders in Latin America Chile has had the following: Manuel de Salas, founder of the Academia de San Luis; Andrés Bello, humanist and first rector of the University of Chile; Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Argentine-born educator who became director of Chile's and Latin America's first normal school;

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Dario Salas, the principal moving force behind the 1920 approval of the compulsory elementary education law. To bring this incomplete list up to date, one should include the name of Irma Salas, an outstanding current leader in secondary education, educational research, and development of the university regional colleges.

Chile has pioneered in new ideas. Since World War II the secondary schools have gradually incorporated innovations, including guidance services and a more flexible curriculum. A 10-year experimental project begun in 1961, the Plan de Arica, seeks a better coordination between levels and types of schools and thereby attempts to correct a deficiency in the present structure. Regional university colleges, the beginnings of graduate work in many fields, and basic institutes to serve the professional schools are among the innovations which are changing the traditional concept of higher education in Chile.

Certainly part of the credit for the positive developments in Chilean society can be attributed to the schools. Foremost among these developments are political stability; the maturity of institutions; the increasing strength of a growing middle class; the vigorous activities of political, economic, and social groups; and commitment to the democratic processes. These are no mean achievements in a country faced with so many unresolved economic and social problems.

Problems

Chile is not satisfied with its achievements. It is more preoccupied with such problems as an illiteracy rate of 20 percent; a dropout rate of over 70 percent before the end of grade 6 and of over 97 percent before the end of secondary school; and a failure rate of about 50 percent on the bachillerato examination, the principal hurdle for university admission.

Administratively, the school system is marked by a high degree of centralism, a lack of coordination among the various directorates of the Ministry, a lack of articulation among different levels and types of schools, inadequate supervision, and minimal coordination between the public and private schools, which operate as dual systems.

Add the deficiency of school plants and equipment, a rigid curriculum, inferior teaching methods and materials, lack of qualified teachers, the unfortunate conditions surrounding rural education, and the general low level of school support and one gets an impression of qualitative as well as quantitative deficits in the educational

Possibly Chile's overriding educational problem is that of attuning its educational system to the needs of an economically developing society.

Prospects

Chilean leaders are aware of their educational needs. A commission was appointed in 1961 to make a preliminary study and to propose the general bases for planning Chilean education in all its aspects. The commission's report received wide acclaim throughout the country and served as the prelude to a Government-decreed Comisión de Planeamiento Integral de la Educación Chilena (Commission for the Integral Planning of Chilean Education).2

The Commission is composed of high-ranking educational and Government leaders, including some members of the Congress. Its Executive Secretary is Oscar Vera, Chief of the Division for Latin America of the Department of Education of UNESCO, on loan to the Commission.

The Commission was assigned the task of studying the demographic, economic, educational, and social factors relevant to the task of integral educational planning and of proposing solutions to problems. In 1963 the Commission undertook research studies on the following topics:

The attitudes of various social groups toward education and the values they attach to it.

Educational personnel-numbers, qualifications, years of service, job description, etc.

Human resources-labor force distribution and type and levels of education required in various occupations; the need for specialized personnel in social and economic developmental plans.

Pupil distribution by grade and age throughout all private and public education (including adult education) from the kindergarten to the university.

School maps of all communities in the country as a basis for organizing and distributing various kinds of educational service.

The Commission has also organized task forces of specialists from the various levels of education to study problems and make proposals for solving them. One proposal was for a new educational structure. The new structure aims to correct many of the deficiencies of the pres

1 Ministerio de Educación Pública. Bases Generales para el Planeamiento de la Educación Chilena.

2 Decree of December 28, 1962. See Informe de Chile, p. 1-12, for a description of the Commission and its activities (Ministerio de Educación Pública).