DESIGNER

Aneesa Phelps

PROFILE/DESCRIPTION

Education in Chile: Blackboard battles An ambitious attempt to get incentives right in the classroom THE battle to achieve economic development will “be won or lost in the classroom,” declares Chile’s president, Sebastián Piñera. To try to secure victory he has begun what he called Chile’s “most ambitious educational reform since the 1960s”. The first part of the reform, launched last month, deals with schooling; next year the education minister, Joaquín Lavín, hopes to start unveiling other measures for preschool, technical and higher education. Mr Piñera took office in March after two decades of centre-left rule. His centre-right alliance claims that despite a big rise since the mid-1990s in the proportion of young people at secondary school and university, standards have not improved. That is not borne out by the PISA results (see article): Chile’s average scores have risen steadily since 2000. [article shortened] Article Courtesy of The Economist