Educación chilena en la República: Promesas de universalismo y realidades de inequidad en su historia

Abstract

This historical inquiry tends to contribute to the present discussion on the social equity in Chilean education, mainly based on secondary sources, even though it also uses primary sources. It is focused in a period from the Independence to the year 2006. At first it examines the overall education promised by the founding fathers of the Republic, then it analyses the school system's development since 1840. It underlines the tendency to increase opportunities in education. It was a long and unequal expansion which finally included mostly of the children and young people. This process hid an historical segregation in the public schooling offer. The article examines the main school segregation's features and also the growing criticism in their time.