Welcome...

Junta Nacional de Jardines Infantiles (JUNJI) is an autonomous public institution created in 1970 by Law N° 17.301 which reports to the Ministry of Education and is in charge of imparting the country's early education.

JUNJI's mission consists in providing early education to boys and girls under four years of age who live in a situation of vulnerability, guarantee them equal development opportunities, through the creation, promotion, supervision and certification of day care centers and preschools either directly or though third parties.

JUNJI MISSION

COVERAGE

QUALITY

GOOD TREATMENT

REGISTRATION

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS

CHILE GROWS WITH YOU

What are JUNJI's core activities?

JUNJI sustains its work around three core pillars: educational quality, coverage extension and promotion of good treatment. The institution centers its work on these pillars in an endeavor to provide high quality service to the country's 40% most vulnerable children.

Its specific objectives are:

• Significantly extend access to quality early education in boys and girls under four years of age.

• Improve educational process quality, stressing on good treatment.

• Assure families of children attending private preschools that these schools have the necessary conditions to care for their boys and girls by certifying their regulatory compliance.

What does JUNJI do?

JUNJI works throughout the national territory, from Putre to the Magallanes Region and the Chilean Antarctica, including Easter Island and the Juan Fernandez Archipelago. Its structure is organized under a central level – represented by its Executive Vice President, a position that has the full confidence of the President of the Republic - and by 15 Regional Offices, which together provide educational, meal and protection services to 129 thousand boys and girls in over 1,500 establishments, according to December 2007 data. Among its tasks are:

• Comprehensive educational care in day care centers and preschools under the administration of JUNJI.

• Comprehensive educational care in day care centers and preschools operated by municipalities or non-profit institutions with JUNJI financing.

• Certification of private day care centers and preschools.

Extending educational service coverage

Given the relevance that President Michelle Bachelet's administration has granted child protection in Chile since 2006, as part of its fundamental mission JUNJI has undertaken to extend the coverage rate of the earliest day care levels, with a view to incorporate more boys and girls from the country's poorest 40% households to the educational system from the very beginning of their life.

This strategy, that forms part of the State's public policies that seek to safeguard children's rights and place them at the core, aims to create equality from the crib, and thus a fairer and more equitable society that will do away with the vicious circle of poverty, and that will value all its members and offer them every possibility to fully develop at all levels.

Thus, between 2006 and 2007, Chile has extended day care center coverage by 240% as regards 2005, i.e., it has tripled its public coverage at this education level and has substantially exceeded what was achieved in over three decades of its trajectory.

In March 2006, the country had 708 public day care centers. In December 2006, the State had built 800 more and in 2007 it built 900 additional ones. By March 11, 2010 – in a mere four years – 3,500 new public and free day care centers will have been built in Chile, to educate and serve 70 thousand new infants (0-2 years of age) belonging to the country's 40% poorest families.

Quality assurance model

JUNJI has historically undertaken its responsibility for early education quality through three modalities: supervision of directly administrated establishments, a task that involves directing their educational processes; supervision of civil society establishments which receive state funds; and the certification of private day care centers and preschools.

In addition, as of 2007 JUNJI implements a brand new management model for day care centers and preschools, that seeks to foster continuous quality improvement processes in the services they provide.

For this purpose JUNJI is regularly assessing five management areas in its establishments, which account for the learning potential that it promotes, and the continuous quality enhancement of the services provided.

These areas are:

• Leadership

• Educational process management

• Protection and care

• Family participation and commitment

• Human resource management and administration

Promotion of Good Treatment

Chile understands that boys and girls have the inalienable right to good treatment. Thus, JUNJI promotes good treatment of its preschoolers; i.e., children's welfare, health, and comprehensive development, so that they may grow up healthy and to become future adults that in turn respect young children.

JUNJI endorses good treatment through:

• the Human Resources Department, promoting good treatment toward all the institution's staff members.

• the Technical-Pedagogic Department, by coordinating all actions aimed at preventing eventual child abuse situations.

To undertake this important strategy, JUNJI also has Protection and Good treatment Units, present in its 15 Regional Offices, made up by psychologists, lawyers, educators and social workers.

Each unit pursues three lines of action:

• Promotion of good treatment and seeking children's welfare.

• Prevention of violent behavior.

• Attention of child right violation cases.

What is registration?

By registering private establishments, JUNJI certifies to the community that a private a day care center and/or a preschool conforms to prevailing regulations. In other words, that it meets the basic conditions as regards infrastructure, safety, proper staff, and that it pursues an appropriate educational project for preschoolers.

What is the purpose of registration?

JUNJI, as a state institution and through the provisions that the law confers it, must safeguard the protection of boys and girls in the exercise of their full rights as persons. Thus, this registration guarantees certain fundamental aspects referred to the care and education of boys and girls under six years of age.

What are the benefits of registration?

• Boys and girls receive the best conditions for the development of their potentials and are housed in safe and protected facilities.

• Their education and care is imparted by proper and trained staff.

• The family is provided with actual support in the care and education of their children.

JUNJI's educational programs

JUNJI's educational programs are present throughout Chile. Through them the institution imparts quality, opportune and pertinent education fostering relevant and significant learning based on the preschooler's welfare and personal development within his/her sociocultural and natural environment.

The programs have been created to meet the needs of preschoolers and their families. They also consider the leading and active role of boys and girls and the mediating role placed by the adults' involved in the learning process, fostering modern ways of learning and teaching. Each one of them abides by the principles and goals set forth in the Preeschool Education Curricular Reform, in response to the demands posed by contemporary Chilean society. The educational programs are as follows:

1. Preschool Program

Implemented in preschools targeted at 0-4 year-olds. It includes boys and girls with special needs. It is either directly managed by JUNJI or under a fund transfer scheme to municipalities or nonprofit organizations. They are located in urban and semi-urban areas, operating eleven months a year in a full day scheme and offering free feeding services.

2. Alternative Care Program

Presential schooling under the responsibility of a preschool technician, serving boys and girls from 2 years of age until their entry to elementary school, on a daily basis. It offers free comprehensive care, including education, meals and social care, considering the family a key player in the educational process and is mainly implemented in rural and semi-urban areas.

• Family Preschool: Operates on a half-day scheme, under the charge of a preschool technician who works with the children's families on a daily basis.

• Preschool for Working Mothers: It is aimed at children of working mothers and is organized in terms of their needs, offering, as needed, time extensions and meals .

• Seasonal Preschool: Aimed at children whose mothers work at temporary jobs mainly in the fruit industry areas, the agroindustry, fishing and tourism. It operates three or four months a year during the summer.

• Intercultural Preschool: Designed for indigenous children between 2 and 5 years of age of ethnias such as the Aymara, Atacameño, Colla, Rapanuí, Mapuche, Pehuenche, Huilliche, Kawashkar and Yámana. An Intercultural curriculum is implemented, corresponding to each ethnia.

• Improving Infant Care Program: Aimed at children in vulnerable situations. It operates in community spaces with the participation of families and cultural agents who, with the support of JUNJI professionals, solidarily provide them with education and care.

3. Family Programs

In these programs the family is at the core their children's educational process. The preschoolers' homes become educational spaces, with parents or close relatives in charge of their learning processes with the guidance of preschool educators and support materials.

• Communicational Program: Aimed at children who do not attend a formal preschool education program. It is carried out through radio broadcasting, and supplemented by educational guides for the families.

• Know your Child Program (CASH): Trains mothers in rural sectors to become the educators of their children under 6 years of age who live in highly disperse geographic locations and do not have access to other educational programs.

“Chile Grows with You”

“Chile Grows with You” is a Comprehensive Infant Protection System that aims to accompany, protect and comprehensively support all boys and girls and their families, including their essential health and education areas. Its purpose is to cater to the needs and support the development of each early childhood stage, from pregnancy, promoting the basic necessary conditions, in the understanding that child development is multidimensional.

“Chile Grows with You” forms part of the Social Protection System embraced by President Michelle Bachelet's administration and is one of the country's deepest social reforms in a public endeavor to seek equity, even before birth.

JUNJI forms part of the “Chile Grows with You”, system by guaranteeing the availability of day care centers and preschools for the country's most vulnerable boys and girls from, many of whom have working mothers that view this service a support to their maternity.