Transformations and challenges facing Chilean public education in the context of a health emergency

The COVID-19 health emergency placed unprecedented strain on Chile’s public education system and required rapid reorganization to preserve pedagogical continuity throughout 2021. This review examines how the shift from face-to-face schooling to virtual provision—through synchronous and asynchronous instruction—was implemented, and what it revealed about school organization, teaching work, and students’ learning experiences. It brings together policy and normative frameworks that protect the right to education and support inclusive curricular adjustments, while also considering the practical decisions made under conditions of uncertainty and uneven social resources. The evidence suggests that the transition involved more than adopting platforms: it reshaped teaching as techno-pedagogical and socio-emotional mediation, intensified coordination with families, and relocated learning to domestic spaces, producing markedly different outcomes depending on connectivity, household conditions, and prior digital preparedness. The review also identifies the use of active methodologies—project-based and problem-based learning, flipped classroom practices, team-based approaches, and gamification—as efforts to sustain motivation, autonomy, and interaction in online settings, with results conditioned by institutional capacity and teacher professional development. Persistent gaps in access, digital competence, and assessment practices point to risks of widening inequality and accumulating learning losses. The synthesis argues for consolidating a flexible and resilient hybrid model, supported by technological infrastructure, continuous teacher training, and inclusive policies that can respond to future disruptions without breaking educational trajectories.