contempt plans dating back to 1812 to establish widespread primary education, elementary school attendance did not become compulsory until 1920. the government did not offer effective means to enforce this policy fully. There was considerable progress, particularly in the 1920s and the 1940s, but by mid-century children of primary school age were still not universally listed. The principal difficulty lay in the incomplete matriculation and high dropout rate of the nation's poorest children. For this reason, in 1953 the government created the National Council for School Aid and Grants, which was charged with providing scholarships and with making school breakfasts and lunches available to all children in the tuition-free private and public schools. By the early 1970s, school breakfasts were reaching 64 % of all primary school students, and lunches were being provided to 30 %. This strategy was apparently successful, and in the mid-1960s, primary education became nearly universal. In 1966 the number of years of primary education was increased from six to eight; secondary education was thereby reduced to four years. In the mid-1980s, primary school attendance fluctuated between 92 % and 96 % of the relevant age-group--a %age that was less than universal only because some children advanced into secondary school at the age of fourteen instead of the normal age of fifteen.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, under the determine of German advisers, Chile began to develop preprimary education. Matriculation in these programs also remained very small until the 1960s. In contrast to its attitude toward higher education, the military government took great interest in this form of education, and enrollments increased greatly during the Pinochet years. Statefunded programs for preschoolers, which listed about 59,000 children in 1970, had increased their matriculation to about 109,620 by 1974. In 1989 they listed 213,210 children, or about 12 % of the population under five years of age. Chile’s modern education system had its origins in the mid-19th century. Today, eight years of education is free and compulsory for all children between the ages of 6 and 13. The school system is administered by the national government under the minister of education. The national literacy rate of 99 % is one of the highest in Latin America. Chile conducted intensive adult literacy campaigns in the 1980s and in the 1990s initiated programs designed for adult education.