SEGREGATION AND DEPOPULATION OF PUBLIC SCHOOL ENROLLMENT IN CHILE: A TREND STUDY BETWEEN 2003 AND 2018

Abstract

The objective of this article is to analyze the behavior of enrollment in Basic and Secondary Education in the public sector in Chile. From a quantitative approach and with descriptive-analytical techniques, data from the Chilean Ministry of Education and the National Socioeconomic Characterization Survey (NSCS) were explored, showing the trend of enrollment and demand profiles in public education between 2003 and 2018. The results show a sustained decline in public enrollment levels, especially from the middle classes. Schools in this sector seem increasingly relegated to preferential attention to vulnerable groups with low socioeconomic capital, which reproduces educational segregation, especially when considering the growth of the private sector. The conclusions argue that the deterioration evidenced in the enrollment and social prestige of public education may be reaching a point of no return where State intervention is urgent; the State must modify its subsidiary role and strengthen the cultural mission of education, an indispensable step for the recovery of coexistence and encounter with others at school.