Opinion

Mr. Director, This week, the mayor of Renca announced the delivery of a bonus to all pre-kindergarten children who have 95% attendance between March and May in the schools of his commune, as a radical way to face the serious problem of school absenteeism. All efforts to keep students in class are welcome. We hope that the voucher will be…

Many school communities hope that attendance will improve in the last school term. However, figures from previous years show that this is not always the case, and that absences in this period may even worsen. What to do? The results of the 1st Survey of Beliefs on School Absenteeism carried out by Fundación Presente shed some light on this issue.…

Recovering our pre-pandemic attendance levels has proven to be a much more complex challenge than expected, and not only in our country. A few days ago, The Economist commented that, in the United States, Australia and England, improvements are far below expectations. The same article stated that one of the most plausible explanations is that, after having experienced distance learning,…

Mr. Director: Winter began and with it came the long awaited and much needed rains. However, as much as we were expecting them, were we able to prepare adequately? Were the rainwater drains cleared to avoid flooding? Did we secure the roofs of the schools to avoid leaks in the classrooms? Apparently not. As so often, too late. Dozens of…

This week the expected results of the SIMCE 2022 were released. There has been a lot of analysis of the stagnation of the results in reading and the drop in mathematics, especially among women. In its results report, the Quality Agency highlighted 4 main conclusions from the SIMCE 2022, and I would like to focus on one of them:Students who…

In Chile there is a widespread belief that illness and student vulnerability are the main reasons for school absenteeism. However, when we review the attendance data of 16 thousand students in the country, we see a pattern that calls our attention: in all of the analyzed schools and at all levels of education, Friday is the day with the lowest…

Mr. Director: Last Friday, the Minister of Education celebrated the four-point increase in average attendance in March compared to the same month last year, reaching 89%. It is always great news that students are going to class and that is why we celebrate this increase. However, it is important to be clear that this March attendance figure, if maintained for…

In the last 4 years, schoolchildren have missed 97 weeks of classes; we are talking about two and a half years of schooling. The Government is working on an educational reactivation plan, but if children and young people do not attend classes, such plan will have no impact. Evidence shows that students with chronic absenteeism, that is, those who miss…

Mr. Director: After almost 2 years of schooling lost due to the pandemic, today more than ever we must prioritize keeping schools open at all costs. Rather than suspending classes for various reasons, either because a company generated contamination, or because there is a specific funeral, we believe it is important to ask the opposite question: what to do to…

After 3 years of pandemic, there is no time to lose. Children MUST go to school, since in the last 4 years they have had 97 weeks of missed classes, we are talking about 24 months that correspond to two and a half years of schooling. Although the government is working on an Educational Reactivation Plan, if children and young…