Chile Forum

A lot of foreigners homeschool in Chile. That could range however from teaching everything yourself, to hiring outside tutors, or even a full-time dedicated teacher (totally possible for many as teacher's don't make that much in Chile). It also depends on what your objectives are for your kids education. Simply mastering the Spanish language at a young age might mean your kids are getting more out of the school than their classmates, even if the school is overall kind of in the middle.

Just don't try to mix foreign kids with public schools. Even relatively poor people, will send their kids to private schools if they can.

There is also a big change being proposed for a government voucher system to allow any student to go to any school they like. Should cause an explosion in competitive schools at the high-end of the education market, rather than the rather low-end subsidy / charter schools they have now for lower social/economic class. Super exclusive schools will stay that way however.

There is also something to be said for connections made at the super high-end exclusive schools. Yea, you pay more, but Chileans that go to them seem to make life-long economic and political connections that can make or break what they do in the future. I don't know how many times my wife has picked up the phone to call someone at a law firm, company, government office that she went to grade school with or high school with to solve some sort of problem or get some outside advice. Of course the same things goes for the famous Universities (essentially U. of Chile and Catholica U in Santiago are where the elite go to school). A politically connected student body of politically connected families in Chile buys more than an education and a paper on the wall, at least for Chileans. If your kids will be here as adults, then the cost of admission will pay for itself.