EDUCATING FOR GROWTH IN CHILE - The Real Facts

Last week, the World Bank & CEPAL organised a major conference in Santiago

about the development and financing of information technology as a vehicle

for growth in Latin America. Most of the speakers were keen to point out

how important advanced computing and telecommunications are important to

growth. This has now to stand together with Education as the Great Gap that

needs to be bridge on the road to development. If it was only that easy.

Let us look at Chile in this context.

RACLETTE, MELATONINE AND BOTOX

Few countries in Chile are as eager as to jump on the latest fashionable

product and run away with it as the solution to all problems. The lax

supervision of regulatory authorities does not help (and the impunity with

which culprits perform, just look at the retail sector's "indignation" at

the news this week that nearly all of them charge illegal usury rates on

credit sales. In Chile you are not allowed to shout when you get raped,

because the family of the rapists issue communiqués against your "infamy".

I know what I am talking about).

In the mid-90's, if you went to society dinners, all the lady of the house

would talk about was this wonderful (Swiss ') cheese called Raclette which

could only be found at Jumbo (and not always), and it was absolutely

essential for their cooking. A couple of years ago, the drug Melatonine,

about which there were many a doubt and controversy in the developed world,

became all the craze (nicely disguised under other brand names). We know

have Botox, the also controversial " miracle drug" which gets rid of

wrinkles.

THE LUCK OF THE IRISH

What has any of the above to do with education and growth? Only to the

extent that this sort of management-by-fashion-and-buzzword has become the

norm in Chile. President Lagos was in Ireland recently, a country which for

a while enjoyed a very high growth rate. The Chilean explanation: the

quality of Irish education. If only Chileans were as educated as the Irish,

furthermore having O'Higgins as a Founding Father, then all would be well.

The Irish had their moment of glory thanks to their entry into the EU,

which allowed their undoubted talents to be used globally. I do not know

how good or bad Ireland's education system is, but a survey in Britain last

year about people's attitude to business people singled out the Irish as

the best salesman. Not because they all had PhD's (though they have

produced some fine intellectuals), but because they are warm-hearted,

good-humoured, sociable, adaptable and quick-witted. They also all speak

English. Do any of those characteristics apply to Chileans, furthermore

based in a country which becomes an isolated island each time it rains or

snows a bit?

As for information technology, the chief regulator of the telecom sector in

Honduras at the seminar in question was the only realistic fellow. As his

colleagues from Colombia and Peru were boasting as to how many broad-band

internet call centres they were planning in each Amazonic settlement, the

gentleman from Tegucigalpa pointed out that health and road infrastructure

were more of a priority. In Viña del Mar, the Lebanese community (in which

I include myself by birth if not by passport) sponsors a school in the

poorest part of town. We were asked to help finance a computer room as part

of a programme set up by the Education Ministry and Telefonica. As a result

the school has a very nice computer room, but there is not a lot of money

to train teachers in their use. A small detail: the school's toilets do not

have running water. Is broad band more important than basic hygiene?

WHAT IS REALLY WRONG WITH CHILEAN EDUCATION?

A lot. Here is a non-exhaustive catalogue of aspects without the

solution of which no real progress can be expected. The list is not

necessarily by order of importance.

-Reform ideas, irrespective of their efficiency or relevance, imposed upon

and administrative and academic corps which is set in its ways and has no

incentive to change.

-The lack of debate (in and outside the classroom) which prevents the

formation of inquisitive minds

-In relation with the above, the proliferation of schools, from

kindergartens to universities, under the aegis of religious or political

institutions in order to stifle universal thought and perpetuate rigidity

-The proliferation of "drive-in" universities with no permanent academic

corps, but a number of "visiting professors" (never was the expression so

well used as for Chilean money-making universities) who jump from

establishment to establishment without allegiance to any, little contact

with the students outside the class room and no "esprit de corps".

-The purely commercial racket of "subsidised municipal schools" where the

bulk of the nation's pupils study in an operation whose only purpose is to

take-in money from an authority which hardly supervises the quality.

-The bad quality of language teaching even in private schools. The

ministerial ambition of a "bilingual" country (which by the way means being

equally proficient in both languages) should not be confused with the

modest aim of having enough people with just a working knowledge of

English, itself already be quite an achievement. With over half Chilean

pupils not understanding the texts they read in Spanish, and the only

country with a non-English speaking Foreign Minister, it will be an arduous

road.

-The low social standing of teachers, who are considered by many parents as

of the same level as their domestic employees, not to mention the poor

levels of pay which even in the private sector give them an inferiority

complex vis-à-vis their pupils.

-The virtual impossibility of a gap year between school and university,

that excellent British custom to allow an educative breather in-between, as

you have to sit your entrance exam again if you do not enter university

three months after sitting your high school exams (the reform of which

having itself been a disastrous confusion).

-The cretinising level of local TV programming

Oh yes, how to grow ? As latest statistics show (fully vindicating my

constant warnings that official expectations were exaggerated since the

turn of the year), GDP will be lucky to reach 3 % this year (and probably

in coming years). The reason has not changed : since the early 1990's,

there are no more growth vectors carrying the Chilean economy on a faster

course.