A/HRC/35/24/Add.1 Framework for Action adopted by UNESCO in November 2015 to modernize legislation on education as a fundamental right and a public good. 24. During his visit, the Special Rapporteur was extensively briefed by national and local authorities about the bill on the national public education system, colloquially referred to as the “demunicipalization” bill. It is a significant piece of the legislative reform, and the Special Rapporteur hopes it will be enacted soon. Its main purpose is to restore national control over the management of education, which was decentralized to the municipalities during the dictatorship. The bill seeks to eliminate social segregation and, like the Act on Inclusive Education, it focuses on equal rights and opportunities, while attempting to achieve comprehensive and inclusive quality education. 25. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the bill on the rights of the child, which provides for the financial resources necessary to give all children equal opportunities to access preschool education. The bill pays particular attention to vulnerable children, including children with disabilities. It proposes the creation of a new high-level interministerial institutional council to guarantee the rights of the child, including a dedicated ombudsperson. It bears witness to the high priority Chile gives to the rights of the child. V. Freedom of teaching and its constitutional limits 26. The Special Rapporteur is encouraged that the drive towards modernizing education laws remains the main tenet of the current reforms. That drive has been facilitated by subjecting freedom of teaching to international and constitutional obligations concerning the right to education in order to ensure that freedom of teaching is not unfettered and is not allowed to impede the reform that is under way. 27. In keeping with the principle of freedom of teaching, schools, including religious institutions, have been providing education in Chile in the name of parents’ and guardians’ liberty to ensure their children’s religious and moral education in accordance with their own convictions. The Special Rapporteur was told that one example of a religious institution that placed significant emphasis on human rights was the Silva Henríquez Catholic University in Santiago. 28. In Chile, market forces have been allowed to operate in education in the name of freedom of teaching. In his meeting with members of the Constitutional Court, the Special Rapporteur learned about the request of some members of Congress to declare the Act on Inclusive Education unconstitutional, and he was informed that discussions over freedom of teaching were fraught with difficulties and centred around two conflicting views. Some people were emphasizing the fact that freedom of teaching was linked to the idea that the State should not regulate, whereas others took the position that the State should better regulate freedom of teaching in order to guarantee the right to education. 29. The Court determined that regulating the right to education did not violate freedom of teaching and that freedom of teaching was not an end in itself, but a means of ensuring the right to education. The Court prioritized, in line with the country’s constitutional and international obligations, the right to education over freedom of teaching. The Constitutional Court should be applauded for the fact that, confronted with conflicting views and intense legal discussions, it resolved not to impede or jeopardize human rightsbased education reforms in Chile. 30. It is now clearly established that the exercise of freedom of teaching in Chile is subject to certain conditions: (a) schools must obtain State authorization and official recognition; and (b) schools are entitled to educational freedom regarding curricula only within the minimum standards set by the State. In addition, the owners of private schools that do not receive subsidies may conduct selective entrance tests. However, establishments owned by the State and subsidized private schools cannot conduct selective entrance tests, except for schools requiring early specialization, such as in the arts, for which tests may be conducted from the seventh grade. In such cases, the tests cannot include academic content. 31. The Special Rapporteur recalls that the liberty of individuals and bodies to establish and direct educational institutions is not unfettered. As provided for in the International 6