Children and Youths Out of School

In Chile, more than 200,000 children and young people who should be in school have been excluded from the educational system for various reasons—most, if not all, linked to the poverty and vulnerability in which they grow up. For this reason, the terms “dropping out” or “school abandonment” are no longer used; instead, the focus is on “educational exclusion.”

The Súmate Foundation’s re-entry schools—part of the Hogar de Cristo organization—date back to the late 1980s, a period marked by high levels of educational exclusion in Chile.

Currently, the foundation—led by educator Carola Gana as of 2025—operates three re-entry schools. Located in the communes of Maipú, La Granja, and Renca, these schools serve 1,146 students across two daily shifts. As a core part of their educational model, they offer a condensed two-year secondary program and vocational training in fields such as gastronomy, catering, and beauty/hairdressing. The schools are all located in Santiago:

Padre Álvaro Lavín (Maipú)
Betania (La Granja)
Padre Hurtado (Renca)

All the above SUMATE schools offer students certified vocational training in gastronomy, catering, and aesthetics.

In 2025, 165 students from Súmate’s three re-entry schools earned certifications in these trades through Infocap, strengthening their employment and entrepreneurial prospects.

Want to understand more deeply how SUMATE works in one of education’s most challenging fields? In other words, we reshape negative experiences in educational exclusion to give students new meaning. PLEASE CLICK HERE.