Representative of the OECD and President Zolezzi agree on the need to design long-term education policies

  • Richard Yelland, Head of the Policy Advice and Implementation Division in the Directorate for Education and Skills at the OECD, met with different members of Universidad de Santiago’s community, authorities and President Juan Manuel Zolezzi Cid.

Richard Yelland, Head of the Policy Advice and Implementation Division in the Directorate for Education and Skills at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), met with different members of Universidad de Santiago’s community, authorities and President Juan Manuel Zolezzi Cid.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss different matters in the context of the study “Reviews of National Policies for Education” that seeks to identify changes in the Chilean education system since 2004. The study was requested by the Chilean Ministry of Education (Mineduc, in Spanish).

“I am glad that he came to Universidad de Santiago de Chile, so that he was able to learn about the reality in the past few years, about what is happening now and what we expect to happen in the future,” President Zolezzi said.

For his part, Richard Yelland said that Universidad de Santiago “is a university with a historical commitment to the country, something that you can see in its students, professors, the President and his team. And it is good to see that. What I have seen here (at the university) has contributed to complement the information gathered at the Ministry of Education, the Congress and other institutions.”

Changes in public policies

After the meeting, President Zolezzi said that, on several occasions, university authorities are ignored and he regretted that every time the government or the ministers change, public policies change too.

“Priorities are defined depending on each government. We have tried to define them, but there are not guidelines at a national level. As this is a State university, the State should be the one to define the problems that we need to solve, but we have never received such information,” President Zolezzi said.

The country requires a vision

Richard Yelland expressed his agreement on these ideas and he said: “Before strengthening the State higher education system, the country needs to have a vision, a strategy for higher education and innovation and determine how this will contribute to the development of the Chilean society and economy.”

He insisted on the need to develop country guidelines first, and then to determine the role of private and State universities. “This means to make long-term decisions, what is difficult for there are ideological divisions; but there are people who are willing to do it. So it is important to try to get out of such a politicized education,” he said.

He finally said that education changes slowly and that it involves different parties, and that legislating is only a part of the process.

Richard Yelland gathered together with professors and students at Universidad de Santiago in order to learn their points of view. He also met with professor Saúl Contreras, Head of the Department of Education of the university.

The study “Reviews of National Policies for Education” seeks to identify the main changes in the Chilean education system between 2004 and 2014 and to describe its current state. 

 

Translated by Marcela Contreras