Early childhood Education and Public Care Policies in Chile: A Historical Perspective to Analyze the Present

Comparative studies in public policy is, in general, an important area, suitable for deep analysis, since it indicates how the State creates a hierarchy of different development sectors that have an impact nationwide, as well as telling us exactly what the end policy product is. With this in mind, the analysis of these policies in emerging countries becomes a particularly interesting field, since it implies that some prioritizations in economical and social contexts are not relatively complex. In this sense, as part of Latin America, Chile is an interesting case to analyze, since in its earliest years as a republic it was concerned about early childhood education. This means that since the first experiences in the 19th Century, an institutional legal basis has been created in the ECEC field. This has made it possible to establish increasingly challenging public policies as seen in the recently created social protection program, “Chile Crece contigo” (Chile Grows with You). This article aims at providing a historical account of the development of public policies in this field, by analyzing their origins and most particularly, their present status. This current situation allows Chile to assist 50% of the population of those aged 0 to 6 in various institutions and in different ways, mainly with public funding (83%). © 2011, Korea Institute of Child Care and Education.