Libro Blanco Vol I en Ingles

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TOWARDS A NATIONAL INNOVATION STRATEGY FOR COMPETITIVENESSVOLUME 1country in variables that are essential for innovation and competitiveness, such as the percentage of thepopulation that enters third-level education or the distorted proportion of professionals versus technical staff.Tackling the problems of primary and secondary education is not within the brief of this Council, but it isessential to emphasize what the February 2006 report states as a goal for the country and a minimum base forany challenge in the area of innovation or productivity: that the school system should develop a platform ofinternational-level basic competencies in the population aged below 18, prioritizing the development oflanguage and communication (written and spoken), managing mathematics and the reasoning characteristic ofthe sciences, the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and proficiency in English. Likewise,to foster the competencies, abilities and behaviours associated to creativity and entrepreneurship in primaryand secondary schools through active teaching methods and experimentation in all sectors of learning.A great leap forward in third-level educationToday, around 40% of young people (aged between 18 and 24) in Chile enter third-level education. Underthe present conditions of basic competence acquisition, it would be a timely endeavour to raise ourselves toaround the 50% mark. This is a high and certainly desirable figure given the gaps described in the previouschapter. It is however also a significant challenge, because if young people do not arrive with the basiccompetencies, there is no point in opening up the doors of higher education to them 54 .To make progress here, the first step is to ensure the quality of primary and secondary teaching 55 . Thesecond step is to decidedly expand the coverage of third-level education based on the capabilities of students.However, why should the State fund education at this level? The answer is because the social benefit ofhaving a greater number of educated people exceeds the private benefit that they obtain through highersalaries, and this leads to higher economic growth for the country (this is a case of network failures).Nonetheless, because it is an intangible asset and its result are uncertain, the possibilities of funding educationthrough the financial system are very scarce (unless there is a guarantor) 56 .The Council estimates that the country should advance in third-level education coverage to levelsapproaching 80% of the population between 18 and 24 years of age towards the year 2020. This significant54 Out of the not-incorporated 60%, the experts believe that only 10 percentage points correspond to students who have the necessarycompetencies for this educational level. Consequently, further improvements will invariably require improving the quality of the basiccompetencies.55 For this, the systems for measuring competencies should be reinforced and the standard recommended is that of the OECD.56 Without State support, only people with higher incomes could study.81
TOWARDS A NATIONAL INNOVATION STRATEGY FOR COMPETITIVENESSVOLUME 1increase requires a revision of the funding mechanisms for this type of studies. Today, the public system coversthe poorest 60% of the population through scholarships or State guaranteed loans, and the following 20%partially.Moreover, the public policy decisions with respect to the provision of scholarships or State guaranteedloans should consider not only the most complicated socioeconomic conditions of the poorest sectors of thepopulation 57 , but also the labour market conditions which they can face once their education is finished 58 . Thesystem should also push for the funding support mechanisms to reflect the costs of degree programs.Priorities and QualityThe ratio between professionals and technical personnel in Chile (11 to 1), which is sharply different tothat of developed countries, indicates that the eventual extension of the public funding for third-leveleducation should concentrate, albeit not exclusively, on the technical and non-university side.Why has this occurred? Firstly, because for a long time the incentive of State financial support was onlyconcentrated on universities and professionals institutes were added to the system of State guaranteed loansonly two years ago. Furthermore, due to cultural and information problems, society is not yet aware of thegreater returns that the study of technical professions 59 can provide. On top of this, the structure of theeducational system offers few options and incentives for students to progress –in accordance with theirpossibilities and needs – on various levels of education and training.The abnormally high ratio betweenprofessionals and technical personnel inChile (11 to 1) indicates that theextension of public funding for highereducation should concentrate intechnical education.57 The alternative cost of studying for people from the 1 st , 2 nd and 3 rd quintiles should be evaluated. Quitting work to study may meancutting access to funding of needs as basic as food. This is why the expansion of the present scholarship and loan schemes should beexamined for food and other costs ( such as, for example, study textbooks).58 It is important to keep in mind the level of State subsidies (rates), for example, salary based discrimination still present in thecountry according to socioeconomic origin or gender of workers, as well as the private returns from different professions.59 In some cases, the private returns from a technical course of study even exceeds that of some professionals, especially those inwhich the market is saturated in terms of the supply of graduates. According to figures from Futurolaboral.cl, in 2004, an auditor froma professional institute gets a higher salary than that of a university educated auditor ($853,000 versus $773,000)82
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