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Original article: Reforma al SAE: Expertos advierten que proyecto del Gobierno amenaza avances en segregación y revive la discriminación arbitraria

The presentation of the Government’s project to reform the School Admission System (SAE) has sparked a technical debate about access to education.

Under the premise of «restoring academic merit,» the proposal seeks to modify the criteria for application and vacancy allocation in schools. However, specialists from the University of Chile, who participated in the Technical Table evaluating the system, warn that the proposed changes could dismantle the system, making it more bureaucratic and discriminatory for families.

What does the Executive’s project propose? The reform aims to transition from the current centralized system to a «mixed» or «mutual choice» model. Practically, this implies:

• Creation of the ‘Mutual Choice’ mechanism: Schools that have experienced oversubscription in the previous process (more applicants than vacancies), especially early specialization or academically demanding ones, are empowered to implement a decentralized ‘mutual choice’ mechanism to allocate their spots before the random selection process, all within the same platform.
• Return of exams and interviews: Schools participating in the ‘mutual choice’ are authorized to administer their own admission tests and conduct interviews with parents as part of the selection process.
• For schools without oversubscription, or for vacancies remaining after mutual choice, a centralized application mechanism and random allocation will remain, which will continue to consider basic priority criteria such as having siblings in the school, a 15% quota for priority students, children of staff, and alumni.

According to Cristian Cabalin, Deputy Director of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Education at the University of Chile, this structure proposed by President Kast poses serious difficulties.

«The Ministry of Education’s bill diverges completely from the proposals made by the SAE Technical Table. We proposed modifications to improve the system, but by no means to create this mixed system, which will only generate more confusion and lead to the return of arbitrary discrimination in the school selection process,» warned the expert.

Moreover, the researcher points out that a model of this kind does not necessarily translate into greater freedom of choice for families, as schools regain the power to accept or reject applicants.

The original design of the School Admission System aimed to neutralize a model where a student’s acceptance often depended on their socioeconomic conditions or family background.

According to a technical report conducted by the CIAE at the University of Chile, the implementation of the current SAE has allowed school segregation in Chile to steadily decline, recording its lowest indexes in 2024 and facilitating access for students with Special Educational Needs (SEN).

However, by segmenting applications through multiple channels, experts foresee complications in managing the process.

Patricio Rodríguez, a researcher at the CIAE and specialist in modeling these systems, explains the risk of altering the centralized acceptance algorithm: «Establishing a parallel pathway fragments the current unified system. By dividing the system, based on evidence, the benefits of efficient allocation will be lost.»

Rodríguez adds that decentralizing applications complicates family planning: «In addition to opening the door to discrimination, processes will become longer and more bureaucratic due to the existence of interviews and potential tests,» he warns, emphasizing that this introduces greater uncertainty for families.

The Technical Alternative to Regulate Academic Performance

One of the main arguments of the Executive is the need for legal reform to reintroduce selection based on performance in prestigious high schools.

However, specialists clarify that the Technical Table had already developed a regulated mechanism to address this aspect without altering the overall structure of the system.

This technical proposal recommended that High Demand High Schools could select up to 80% of their vacancies based on academic performance (via grade rankings) from seventh grade, maintaining a safeguard of 40% of spots for priority students to avoid socioeconomic concentration.

«Therefore, there is no need for a bill like this to restore selection by academic merit,» emphasizes Cabalin.

Unconsidered Improvement Proposals

Technical analyses agree that the SAE requires urgent optimizations, but focused on institutional management and user support rather than modifying its equity foundations.

In this context, among the recommendations made by the Technical Table that were not included in the Government’s final text are:

• Expansion of family priority criteria: extending the benefits of kinship to other cohabiting relatives and ensuring the joint enrollment of siblings to avoid family dispersion.
• Optimization of waiting systems: strengthening complementary stages of the process (such as the «Sign Up on the List» tool) through direct user assistance channels and prioritizing the proximity of schools to homes.
• Guarantees for real inclusion: ensuring priority and mandatory spots for students with permanent Special Educational Needs and youth reintegrating into school.

Based on this information, experts conclude that the presented reform does not aim to correct the operational deficiencies of the current system, but rather to reconfigure school admissions under selection dynamics that diminish families’ decision-making autonomy.

We will continue to provide updates.

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