Chilean Schools

Since I'm going to be teaching here, I thought I would explain a little bit about how the school systems works (or rather, doesn't really work.)  Public schools are decentralized, and overseen by the government but run by municipalities.  Most middle to upper class kids will be sent to private schools because it's considered to be a better education (along with a status symbol that shows off your wealth.)  The other kind of school falls somewhere between private and public.  It's called a colegio subvencionado, or a private school that is partially subsidized by the government.  

After completing high school all Chilean students have to take the Prueba Seleción Universitaria, PSU, which is basically like our SAT.  The difference is that this test determines basically the rest of their lives.  I know we all thought that the SAT would determine the rest of our lives at the time, but here it pretty much does.  The test goes up to a score of 800, and 400 is passing.  The exam is held only once each year, so if you don't do well or happen to get sick that day, you're out of luck for a whole year.  The highest scores go on to a university of the state, like La Universidad de Chile or La Universidad Católica.  Lower scores go to a smaller, less prestigious private college, and the lowest scores go to a trade school or technical school, like DUOC, where I'll be teaching.  DUOC is like what we would consider a community college and offers technical degrees like business management, construction engineering, health services, tourism, design, ect.  Most of my students will be from lower-middle class families.

Technically, I am not here as a teacher, but rather as part of the Teacher Internship Practicum Specialist program.  This means that I am receiving a scholarship, not wages, which is great because it allowed be to get a student visa instead of a work visa (which is much more complicated) and I don't have to pay taxes on my wages in the US.  Woo hoo!  My "scholarship" is relatively small, but it's enough to live on down here in Chile.  I also am only working part-time, which allows me some travel time and time to explore my new home.

DUOC is a series of community colleges in several locations around Santiago, Viña del Mar, and Valparaíso, and is partnered with the Catholic university in Chile.  DUOC has 50,000 students in 10 campuses.  It offers 70 technical programs and employs the methodology of "teaching by doing."  Wow, does this sound like an advertisement for DUOC?   

The interesting part of this blog (if you're still reading at this point) is that on any given day of teaching, I may have 6 out of 18 students show up for class, and of these 6 students, none will be less than 15 minutes late.  There is a major issue with being on time, and also simply showing up for class.  One girl that we spoke with who taught at DUOC last year said that on test day, 3 out of 18 students showed up, but don't take it personally she said.  Umm....hello?  I will totally take it personally.  I would never think of being late like that, so this idea is completely foreign to me.  It will really take some getting used to.  Also, the school's attendance policy says that 5 or more absences results in a failing grade.  But what most often happens is that the student will go to their counselor, make up an excuse, and bring a note to the teacher excusing the student from the failing grade.  This only happens with English classes, however, which may explain why only 3% of the population has a basic level of English.  It will be interesting to see how it all goes when I actually start teaching.  I'm thinking of employing Michelle Pfeiffer's approach from Dangerous Minds and walk into class sporting a leather jacket, brass knuckles and totally lay down the law.  Never mind the fact that it's 80 degrees and leather doesn't breath, and that the areas of town in which you can buy brass knuckles are not areas recommended for "gringas." I guess I will have to find another method.