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The Chilean Educational Sys- 
 tem, with Especial Refer- 
 ence to the Position of the 
 University 
 
 By ,, 
 CHARLES Ef CHAPMAN 
 
 Reprinted from The Hispanic American Historical Review, 
 Vol. Ill, No. 3, August, 1920 
 
FRQBERy/AtlON 
 COPY ADDED 
 ORtOWALTOBE 
 nCTMNCO 
 
 APR 1 1993 
 
Bancroft Library 
 
 University of CaJiforrii 
 
 WITHDRAWN 
 
 Reprinted from The Hispanic Ambbican Histobical Review, Vol. Ill, No. 3, August, 1920 
 
 THE CHILEAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM, WITH ESPECIAL 
 
 REFERENCE TO THE POSITION OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 Chilean writers look upon the year 1813 as that which marked the 
 beginning of their educational system. It was then that the revolu- 
 tionary government, though at that very time in the thick of the War 
 of Independence against Spain, saw fit to found the Instituto Nacional 
 (National Institute) . To be sure, something had existed in the colonial 
 period, but, except for the old University of San Felipe, scarcely any- 
 thing worthy of mention. As a result of the disasters to the patriot 
 cause in the year 1814 the Instituto Nacional was closed, but reopened 
 in 1819, since which time it has had a continuous existence. 
 
 In name the University of San Felipe lived on, for a few years, but 
 the Instituto Nacional now monopolized higher education, serving both 
 as a liceo (high school) and university in one. In 1839 the University 
 of San Felipe was formally closed. In 1842 the University of Chile 
 was founded, and in 1843 began to function. Henceforth the Instituto 
 Nacional remained as a liceo only, and today is but one out of niln^ty. 
 Its fame, however, is quite on a par with that of the University, not 
 only because it was itself the university in earlier years, but also be- 
 cause by far the greater number of the most distinguished men in the 
 history of Chile have received their education within its walls. 
 
 Since the University was founded, there have been twelve Rectors, 
 or Presidents. Among the earlier Rectors the names of Andres Bello 
 and Barros Arana, respectively first and seventh, strike the attention 
 of one who is looking over the list. Bello, though a native of Vene- 
 zuela, belongs to Chile as a literary figure. His is perhaps the greatest 
 name in the history of Chilean literature. Barros Arana is remem- 
 bered primarily as one of the greatest historians that Chile has pro- 
 duced. Worthy compatriots of these men are the two latest of the 
 "twelve Apostles", Valentin Letelier and Domingo Amundtegui, 
 respectively eleventh and twelfth of the Rectors of the University. 
 Letelier was a profound scholar, author of learned works on education, 
 
 395 
 
 C3 
 
396 THE HISPANIC AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW 
 
 historical method, and law. Amundtegui has been Rector of the 
 University since 1911. A member of a family which has been unusu- 
 ally distinguished in the history of Chilean education and historiog- 
 raphy, he has won renown in his own right which will inevitably entitle 
 him to rank among the leading men of letters of Chile. As admin- 
 istrator, teacher, and historical scholar he would stand among the 
 foremost in any country of the world. Withal he is possessed of such 
 a fund of amiability as to win the unaffected devotion and friendship 
 of all who are privileged to know him.^ 
 
 Four facts about present-day education in Chile impress themselves 
 upon the investigator: the honored position of the "professor", includ- 
 ing in that title all teachers, from the university to the primary school ; 
 the position and power of the University of Chile ; the Germanic char- 
 acter of the system as a whole and of the methods of instruction ; and 
 the enthusiastic progress that is being made. 
 
 In Chile the "professor" is a person of distinction and influence, 
 especially the favored group of those who obtain posts in Santiago. 
 It is no uncommon thing for, let us say, a normal-school teacher to 
 hobnob with ministers of state or even the President of the country 
 himself. This is a pleasing surprise to the American professor who 
 sees it for the first time. On the other hand, the Chileans get more 
 glory than pay. Very few of the university professors, for example, 
 are able to make a living out of their profession ; they find it necessary 
 to do something in addition, such as practice law or medicine or teach 
 in secondary schools. Poorly as American teachers are paid, they 
 nevertheless are in this particular in a better position than their breth- 
 ren in Chile. 
 
 Unlike our own system of local responsibility for education, that of 
 Chile is wholly under the control of the national government; even a 
 primary school in an obscure village responds to orders, not from some 
 local board, but from the ministry of education in Santiago. At the 
 head of the system — one is half inclined to say nominally at the head — 
 stands the Minister of Justice and Public Instruction. Chilean minis- 
 tries rise and fall with such startling rapidity, in obedience to the 
 parUamentary type of government which obtains in the country, that 
 it is almost impossible for a cabinet member to become thoroughly 
 
 ^ This article in its preliminary form had the advantage of the constructive 
 criticism of Senor Amundtegui, and such value as it may have is due primarily 
 to him. It is needless to add that the above comments on Senor Amundtegui 
 himself did not appear in the draft that he saw. 
 
NOTES AND COMMENT 397 
 
 acquainted, even, with his own department. This has caused foreign 
 students to believe, mistakenly, that this country is in a state of per- 
 petual administrative chaos. The truth is that government goes on in 
 spite of changing ministries, because the employes of lesser rank than 
 the minister are appointed for life. There is no such thing as a "house- 
 cleaning" on the advent to power of some hitherto minority party. 
 Removals can take place, to be sure, but only for cause. The rule of 
 life employment is very fairly observed. Indeed, one of the most 
 important functions of a minister is to appoint his own political adher- 
 ents to posts that have automatically become vacant, thus preserving 
 his influence and that of his party after both have fallen from power. 
 
 This may be illustrated by the case of education. The various 
 ministers in that branch have policies which change as rapidly as do 
 the ministers. Next in rank to them comes the sub-secretary of 
 education, the actual directing force of the system, and he remains. 
 So too with other important officials, such as the sub-secretary of 
 secondary and higher education and the inspector of primary schools. 
 The last named official, for example, is a virtual dictator over the 
 primary schools of the entire country. Under him are some 7,000 
 teachers, whom in first instance he appoints (whenever there is a 
 vacancy) and whom he may dismiss for cause. It is true that his acts 
 must be approved by the minister, but in practice they are. 
 
 From the foregoing one can easily see why it is that the University 
 of Chile should hold such a powerful place in the educational affairs of 
 the country. The Rector and the university professors are the only 
 individuals of educational prestige who are constantly before the eyes 
 of the pubhc. To be sure, many of the officials in the educational 
 bureaucracy are men of great distinction, but the system does not 
 necessarily require them so to be, and their position is such that they 
 inevitably prefer to do their work quietly, without seeking fame or 
 risking denunciation. Thus it is that the opinions of the Rector or of 
 the Council of tjie University have great weight. Furthermore, vast 
 powers have been granted to the University, so that on the one hand it 
 possesses extraordinary liberty in its internal government and on the 
 other has a very nearly dominant place over the other schools below it. 
 It is doubtful if any university in the world exercises so wide an authority. 
 
 By law the University is subordinate to the Minister of Justice and 
 Public Instruction. In fact it is virtually independent. The most 
 important governing body of the University is the Council, made up 
 of the Minister of Justice and Public Instruction, the Rector of the 
 
398 THE HISPANIC AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW 
 
 University, the Secretary General of the University, the five Deans of 
 the University, the Rector of the Instituto Nacional, three members 
 named by the President of Chile, and two named by the Cloister (or 
 faculty) of the University — fourteen in all. This body is in a sense the 
 legislature of the entire educational system in Chile as well as of the 
 University. The Minister might refuse to follow its advice, but he 
 rarely does, unless it is in conflict with his own educational polic3^ 
 From the very composition of the Council, it is easy to see that the 
 Rector of the University would in fact be the dominating power. He 
 also has a virtually determining influence, in company with the two 
 members from the Cloister, over all administrative appointments within 
 the University and all appointments of teachers to the liceos. He and 
 his two associates place five names in nomination, from which the 
 Council selects three, and the President of the country (or the Minister 
 of Justice and Public Instruction) one. It is the custom for the Rector 
 to indicate his choice by the order in which he lists his nominees ; it is 
 said that the names after the first often represent persons who it is 
 known would not accept the appointment if it were proffered. At any 
 rate his candidates are almost invariably selected. Indeed, certainly 
 so far as the learned and amiable gentleman now at the head of the 
 University is concerned, the Rector may be said to be easily the most 
 important figure in the national educational system, for, subject though 
 he is to the Council, he in fact has the support of that body. 
 
 Within the University itself the faculty has such power as is almost 
 undreamed of in the United States. The whole body of the faculty 
 forms the Cloister, to which also belong certain distingui^ed scholars 
 who, though they are not teachers in the University, are elected by 
 the Cloister itself to membership therein; in their case election to the 
 Cloister is equivalent in Chile to becoming an Academician in such 
 countries as France and Spain. In the main, perhaps, the meetings 
 of the Cloister are of the same harmless variety as the typical faculty 
 meetings in universities of the United States, but it has several very 
 important functions. It elects the two members of the Council who 
 join with the Rector in the making of appointments in first instance, 
 as described above, and who therefore give the faculty a voice in the 
 deliberations of the powerful Council. In like manner the Cloister 
 elects the Secretary General of the University, who also sits with 
 the Council. Of still more import, it elects the Rector of the Uni- 
 versity himself! Still further, the Rector as such is the only member 
 of the faculty who does not hold a life appointment. His term of 
 
NOTES AND COMMENT 399 
 
 office runs for but four years. It has been the custom, however, to 
 reelect the Rector. Senor Amunategui is now in his third term, and is 
 universally popular. 
 
 In yet other ways, though in many of them apart from the Cloister, 
 the members of the faculty have a wide-reaching authority. The 
 University controls secondary education in that the teachers of liceos 
 must have a "title", or degree, authorizing them to teach, and this 
 can be obtained only from the University of Chile. But the student 
 cannot possibly receive his title unless first he wins the approbation of 
 his individual professors. In like manner the University and the 
 members of the faculty have vast power over the medical profession, 
 for here, too, the degree of the University is a license to practice and 
 is the only license that is given. Thus the faculty of the University 
 has a function in Chile which in the United States is reserved by 
 the government to itself. The University alone can grant titles in 
 various other professions — engineering, for example — but their acqui- 
 sition is not required, wherefore one need not attend the University 
 of Chile to study these branches. Finally, the faculty, this time in 
 the meetings of the Cloister, decides on appointments to its own body 
 whenever any vacancy in the teaching staff occurs. Whatever the law 
 on the point may be, it is the fact that these elections are determining. 
 
 It is to be remembered, too, that the University of Chile occupies a 
 unique place among the higher institutions of learning. A little farther 
 up the Alameda de Delicias, the broad avenue upon which the Uni- 
 versity faces, is the Catholic University of Chile, which duplicates 
 many of the courses in the national university. Nevertheless, it may 
 not grant "titles", wherefore it necessarily suffers by comparison 
 with the University of Chile. A private university has recently been 
 established at Concepcion in southern Chile, but this has yet to win 
 a share in the extraordinary power now possessed by the University 
 of Chile alone. 
 
 Through the Council the University of Chile has very great power 
 over primary education, but less, however, than over the secondary 
 schools. Aspirants for the title of primary school teacher do not enter 
 the University, but go instead to some one of the various normal 
 schools. Naturally, the amount of preparation required of a primary 
 school teacher is less by several years than for the teachers in secondary 
 education. To a certain extent the power of the normal schools in 
 primary education resembles that of the University in the case of the 
 liceos, since they have the sole power to grant or withhold titles. There 
 
400 THE HISPANIC AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW 
 
 are a number of normal schools, however, instead of one central insti- 
 tution, and this makes it easier for the government inspector of pri- 
 mary schools to wield a power of which the ofl&cial in charge of uni- 
 versity and secondary education would never dream. 
 
 The University seal has five symbols to represent the different 
 colleges of which it is composed. These are Theology, Law, Medicine, 
 Engineering, and Philosophy and the Humanities. One of these, 
 that of Theology, is virtually non-existent. In 1835 a theological 
 seminary was established apart from the Institute Nacional, which at 
 that time served as the state university. If theological students seek 
 a degree in theology, they must obtain it from the University. Since, 
 however, the church makes priests, and not the state, the students of 
 the seminary do not in fact present themselves at the University. 
 Curiously enough, nevertheless, one of the five Deans of the University 
 represents Theology — a post which is purely and simply an historical 
 survival. 
 
 Really there are several other minor schools, or colleges, within the 
 University, such as Pharmacy, Dentistry, Architecture, Fine Arts, and 
 Physical Education. All of the schools of the University are rigor- 
 ously professional and more or less mutually exclusive. A student 
 who has failed in one of them cannot transfer credits to another, but 
 must start in with the first year again, if he is still desirous of pursuing 
 an education in the University. There will be no courses that he can 
 transfer, for each college has its own curriculum complete. Thus, 
 chemistry will be taught in the colleges of Medicine, Engineering, and 
 Pedagogy, and differently in each; so too with other courses. 
 
 The same exclusive principle turns up within each college. Thus in 
 the Institute Pedag6gico (Pedagogical Institute, of which, more, pres- 
 ently) one may choose from among the various fields, such as Spanish, 
 French, English, German, History and Geography, Mathematics, 
 Physics and Chemistry, each representing a subject that is taught in 
 the secondary schools. If one chooses History and Geography, he 
 will assuredly have no time for any of the others, and similarly if he 
 selects another field. All, indeed, are required to attend courses in 
 pedagogy proper and to serve as practice teachers in the liceo which 
 adjoins the Institute Pedag6gico. Another curious factor is that 
 each course runs through the entire length of a university student's 
 career. In the History of America, for example, the professor reaches 
 Magellan in the first year, deals with the conquest in the second, takes 
 up colonial institutions in the third, and treats of the wars of inde- 
 
NOTES AND COMMENT 401 
 
 pendence and the republican era in the fourth. It may be said further 
 that the subjects taught in the Institute Pedagogic© are precisely the 
 same as those of the liceos and that the teachers are licensed to give 
 instruction only in the subject which they have studied in the Uni- 
 versity. In rare instances a student is able to pass in more than one 
 field, in which case he receives a title in each. From the above it will 
 appear that the Uceo is the one school which makes a pretense at breadth 
 of education. 
 
 Whatever one may think of the system as a whole, there is much to 
 be said in commendation of the methods within courses. Classes are 
 taught with an emphasis on sources and criticism that one rarely finds, 
 short of the graduate seminar, in the United States. The above 
 mentioned class in the History of America, taught at present by Luis 
 Puga, a thorough-going scholar, may be taken for purposes of illustra- 
 tion. A single volume work by the great Chilean historian Barros 
 Arana is used as a text. This is not paralleled or duplicated at all by 
 Professor Puga. He devotes his time to a discussion of the sources 
 and to lectures on disputed points, such for example as the birthplace 
 of Columbus. Twice a year the students are required to write papers 
 on assigned topics. These papers, in the opinion of the present writer, 
 are superior to the average term paper of students in our own uni- 
 versities. More attention is paid in them to sources and proof, with 
 an apparent use of criticism, and less weight is given to mere accumu- 
 lation of incident. The standards of the teacher are high, to the point 
 of severity. Last year, in a class of twenty, only ten passed. 
 
 The Chilean professors make use of the recitation, but not of the 
 periodical examination. The decision as to whether a student passes 
 or fails is left to a veritable inquisition (resembling our doctoral exami- 
 nation) at the end of the year. In this examination the other pro- 
 fessors of the particular college also take part. It may be written or 
 oral or both, but usually it is oral. 
 
 Of the four leading colleges, that of Law unquestionably has the 
 poorest reputation. It is said to be the easiest of all, though the 
 course lasts five years and few are able to finish. If the reports one 
 hears are true, the purely legal courses are least thorough, while those 
 in international law. economics, political science, and other subjects 
 which are annexed to the curriculum of this college have a somewhat 
 better standing. It is a fact, however, that many of the students in 
 this college add courses in some other field, especially among those of 
 the Instituto Pedagogico — or, rather, many in the latter also take law, 
 
402 THE HISPANIC AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW 
 
 in order to procure a title in another profession, whereby they may 
 supplement their scanty emolument as teachers. This very largely 
 accounts for the heavy registration in the college of Law. At the 
 present time there are about 700 enrolled. Less than ten per cent 
 remain through the five years and win the title. 
 
 The college of Medicine has some 600 students of whom about 
 twenty a year receive the title of doctor. The course lasts six years, 
 and is expensive as well as difficult, wherefore many drop out of their 
 own accord. The same thing may be said of the college of Engineer- 
 ing, which, however, does not at present bear a particularly good repu- 
 tation. There are about 300 students in this college. The course is 
 six years long. 
 
 Philosophy and the Humanities are represented by the Institute 
 Pedagogico, which is the nearest approach that the Chileans have to a 
 College of Letters and Science in our sense of the term. It has by far 
 the highest reputation of the various colleges of the University. Ac- 
 cording to one writer, "this establishment is a model school, a center 
 of lofty culture which honors the country. The teachers who are 
 prepared there are competent and hard-working, and they acquire an 
 arsenal of information." Of the 700 enrolled in this college some 400 
 are girls. 
 
 Graduate work is no part of the program of the University of Chile. 
 None of the higher degrees are awarded; the title "Doctor" is applied 
 only to physicians. 
 
 It must be apparent that the source of inspiration for Chilean educa- 
 tion has been Germany. Chilean students who have gone to Europe 
 for graduate study have usually attended German universities, and 
 Germans have been procured for some of the most important educa- 
 tional posts in Chile; indeed, men of other nationality could not be 
 persuaded to leave their country for the small salaries offered, but the 
 German left the homeland easily, and was willing to remain in Chile 
 at a modest wage. Having no longstanding educational tradition such 
 as existed in the United States, the Chileans quite naturally followed 
 the system with which they were best acquainted, that of Germany. 
 
 That Chile is still in its educational infancy can be well appreciated 
 when it is understood that in a population of some 4,000,000, about 
 half — sixty per cent according to some accounts — can neither read nor 
 write, despite the fact that for a generation the law has provided that 
 education should be free and obligatory. One must not forget, how- 
 ever, that the advar.ces of recent years have been at a most gratifying 
 
NOTES AND COMMENT 403 
 
 rate, and have been remarkable as concerns the education of women. 
 In 1918, in some 3,000 primary schools there were 174,000 girls and 
 162,000 boys. Of the ninety liceos, some fifty were for girls. The girls 
 numbered 13,000 and the boys 17,000. In various special schools — 
 normal schools, industrial schools, etc. — there were more than 7,300 
 girls and less than 7,000 boys. In the University the exact figures 
 were 941 young women and 3,287 men. Thirty years ago these figures 
 would have been astounding. At the present rate of progress the 
 Chileans may look ahead with assurance to the attainment of their 
 educational aspirations in the not very distant future. 
 
 Charles E. Chapman, 
 United States Exchange Professor to Chile. 
 
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