From: The Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples/Chileans/Harry Diaz
The educational levels of Chilean immigrants differ, but most Chileans finished at least secondary school before coming to Canada. Education has always been important for Chileans since it is the main instrument for social mobility. In Chile there are both public and private schools, but both must follow the same curriculum. At the primary and secondary levels there are no gender distinctions because Chile has for a long time had a policy of obligatory school attendance for all children.
Education continues to be important to the Chilean community in Canada. Children of both sexes are encouraged to attend school and to continue their education after high school. Some Chilean organizations, such as the Toronto Chilean Association, have made special efforts to create informal educational programs oriented to maintaining the Chilean culture among children. The Toronto school established by this association, which existed in the late 1970s and early 1980s, taught not only Spanish to the children but also Chilean history and literature. A similar school was founded in Regina.
These institutions, however, are always dependent on volunteer work and consequently they usually last only as long as there is somebody willing to invest the time and effort required to maintain them.
Advanced studies are also an important feature in Chilean culture. A recent study from Quebec reports 163 Chileans, approximately 3.5 percent of the Chileans who resided in Quebec in 1991, obtained post-graduate degrees in that province. The study did not take into consideration everyone with a professional degree but only those who carried out advanced university studies. However, the study reveals some interesting trends. There was a clear predominance of males (71 percent) working towards advanced degrees. Although the degrees are distributed among thirty-eight different disciplines, males tend to concentrate in the social sciences, engineering, literature, and medicine, while women are in education and the social sciences. The fact that the majority of the studies were carried out in the French universities of the province is a good indicator of the level of integration of Chileans into the local culture.
