A/HRC/35/24/Add.1 Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (art. 13 (3) and (4)), such freedom in education is subject to compliance with minimum standards to which all private educational institutions are required to conform, in line with the provisions of international human rights instruments. The failure to do so constitutes a violation of the right to education. Freedom of teaching does not give any provider of education the freedom to undermine education as a public good or to subordinate it to private interests to the detriment of the social responsibility to educate. The concept of freedom of teaching is not contrary to the public provision of education as a core and overriding responsibility of the State. The State remains the guardian of the right to education in all circumstances. VI. Transforming the education scenario 32. Having gone through almost three decades of privatization in the field of education, Chile has some of the deepest and most persistent educational inequalities in Latin America. The current reforms are valuable in that they have clearly triggered a process of national transformation with a paradigm shift. A new model of education founded on equitable access to good quality public education is taking shape with laws and policies as its foundation. A. Developments in preschool education 33. After her election in 2006, President Bachelet initiated a major overhaul of early childhood care, building many thousands of new childcare facilities and establishing a national child development initiative, Chile crece contigo (Chile grows with you), for all children under 5 years of age. In 2015, some 49 per cent of children aged 1-5 were enrolled in preschool education with public funding. A concerted effort has been made to make children from the poorest 40 per cent of households eligible for free childcare in crèches (under 2) or kindergartens (aged 2 and 3). The importance of those developments must be appraised in the context of the new bill on the rights of the child (see para. 25 above). B. Developments in basic education 34. As regards the provision of basic education, 6 there are currently three types of school in Chile, depending on the way they are funded: (a) Public schools run by the State and managed mostly by the municipalities, where education is provided free of charge. In 2011, 40 per cent of pupils attended those schools; (b) State-subsidized private schools, which have shared funding comprising State subsidies and private funding by students’ families, 7 almost all of which are managed by private owners. In 2011, 53 per cent of pupils attended those schools; (c) Independent private schools, entirely funded by students’ families who pay the fees charged by the schools. In 2011, 7 per cent of pupils attended those schools. 8 35. All three types of school have been serving sharply stratified socioeconomic groups, with 70 per cent of students in municipal public schools from the lowest-income households, against 75 per cent of students in private schools from the highest-income quintile.9 In addition, owing to the great variation among municipalities in terms of their 6 7 8 9 The term “basic education” is used in the present report to denote primary and secondary education, since that term is used in the Constitution of Chile. Prior to the 2015 Act on Inclusive Education, all schools receiving a State subsidy, whether municipal or private, could also levy monthly charges to students. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Education at a glance 2014: OECD indicators (OECD Publishing, 2014), p. 416. José Luis Drago and Ricardo D. Paredes, “The quality gap in Chile’s education system”, CEPAL Review, No. 104 (August 2011), p. 164. 7