The Instituto Nacional General José Miguel Carrera (), usually called the Instituto Nacional and also known by its code name Liceo A-0, is a public secondary school in downtown Santiago. It serves students in grades 7 through 12 and is the oldest educational institution in the Republic of Chile. It is one of Chile's liceos emblemáticos ("emblematic high schools"), a group of historically prestigious state schools. Its Latin motto is Labor omnia vincit.
The school was created by the government of José Miguel Carrera during the Patria Vieja period by merging the existing educational establishments of colonial Santiago. It opened on 10 August 1813, closed after the Spanish reconquest in 1814, and reopened in 1819. In the nineteenth century it was the country's leading center of secondary and higher education, and the University of Chile grew out of its university section. Its alumni include a large number of Chilean presidents, among them Manuel Montt and Salvador Allende, as well as writers, scientists and other national figures.
Since the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, when its administration was transferred to the municipality in 1986, the school has been a center of student activism, taking part in the mobilizations of 2001, 2006, 2011 and 2019 and experiencing recurring occupations and clashes with police. Until 2021 it admitted only boys; girls were enrolled for the first time that year.
History Antecedents The first educational establishments in Chile were created and maintained by religious orders, which taught reading, writing, basic arithmetic and catechism. Later, some public schools were maintained by the town councils of the main colonial cities.
The most remote antecedent of the Instituto Nacional is the Convictorio de San Francisco Javier, founded by the Jesuits in 1608. After the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767, a council was formed in 1769 to administer their property, and in 1778 it was decided to found a school, the Convictorio Carolino, on the basis of the old Jesuit college. By the early nineteenth century Chilean education was in poor condition: the Royal University of San Felipe was granting fewer degrees, the Convictorio Carolino had only 16 students, and the Conciliar Seminary was in a similar situation. Manuel de Salas had founded the Academy of San Luis, the first educational institution run by civil authorities, but it had only 40 students.
Founding (1810–1814)
After the First National Government Junta was formed in 1810, several patriots saw an opportunity to rebuild education. That year, Juan Egaña submitted a government plan to the junta's president, Mateo de Toro y Zambrano, proposing that Chile should become "a great college of arts and sciences". In 1811 he wrote a document for Congress calling for a national institute for the sciences, arts, trades, military instruction, religion and physical exercise. In February 1811 Manuel de Salas joined the effort and proposed merging the existing schools into the college Egaña envisioned.
In 1812 José Miguel Carrera dissolved the National Congress and assumed power, launching a series of public works that included Chile's first newspaper, the Aurora de Chile, edited by Friar Camilo Henríquez. On 18 June 1812 the paper published Henríquez's "Bases for the creation of the National Institute of Chile", a detailed plan of courses, schedules and organization, whose stated aim was to give the homeland citizens who would defend, direct and honor it.
Carrera reviewed the situation of the Convictorio Carolino, but in April 1813 he had to leave for southern Chile to confront the Spanish offensive led by Antonio Pareja. In his absence the junta found a way to finance the new school and signed the founding decree on 27 July 1813, merging all existing educational institutions. The solemn inauguration took place on 10 August 1813 in the building of the Royal University of San Felipe, on the site now occupied by the Municipal Theatre, and was attended by the main authorities and leading residents of the capital. The first rector was Father Francisco Echaurren, who had been rector of the Convictorio Carolino. A hymn by Bernardo de Vera y Pintado, commissioned by the government, was sung during the ceremony.
Classes began in the old building of the Jesuit College of San Miguel, on the site of the former National Congress building. After the patriot defeat at the Disaster of Rancagua, one of the first measures of the royalist Reconquista government was to close the institute on 17 December 1814.
Reopening and nineteenth-century reforms After Chilean independence was secured, the Senate ordered the institute reopened on 20 July 1819 under Bernardo O'Higgins. In these early years the authorities paid it great attention; presidents such as Francisco Antonio Pinto lunched with the best students and attended the year-end examinations.
The school remained essentially a colonial college in its curriculum and teaching methods under its first rectors. Juan and Mariano Egaña attempted a reform in 1823 without success. Carlos Ambrosio Lozier briefly became the first lay rector and introduced European liberal teaching models; although he could not eliminate older practices, his changes influenced students such as Ventura Marín and Melchor José Ramos, who took part in the liberal movement of 1828.
In the 1830s new teachers such as Andrés Bello and Andrés Antonio Gorbea modernized the curriculum. Bello promoted Roman law, universal legislation, Spanish grammar and medical studies, and Gorbea promoted arithmetic and mathematics. The first medicine courses were taught by Guillermo Blest. In 1835, at the request of Bishop Manuel Vicuña Larraín, civil and ecclesiastical studies were permanently separated, with the latter moving to the seminary.
From 1835 to 1845 the rectors were Manuel Montt, Francisco Puente and Antonio Varas. Montt, who had entered as a student in 1821 and later served as inspector, teacher and vice rector, became rector in 1835 and left in 1840 to serve as Minister of the Interior; he was President of Chile from 1851 to 1861. Varas served as Montt's interior minister after his own rectorship.
In 1842 the school's Literary Society launched what is regarded as Chile's first intellectual movement; members included the alumnus José Victorino Lastarria and the then-students Francisco Bilbao, Manuel Antonio Matta and Eusebio Lillo. The same year higher and secondary studies were separated and the University of Chile was created, but because the university had no building of its own until 1868, its courses continued to be taught in the university section of the Instituto Nacional.
In 1840 the government hired the architect Juan Herbage to build a new home for the school, as its quarters at Compañía and Morandé streets were no longer adequate. The site chosen lay between the Alameda and San Diego and Nueva de San Diego streets (today Arturo Prat). The colonial-style building was delivered in 1850, leaving the section along the Alameda unbuilt so that the university could construct its headquarters there.
Diego Barros Arana, rector from 1863, promoted scientific studies, hired teachers such as Rodulfo Amando Philippi and Jean Gustave Courcelle-Seneuil, wrote textbooks, equipped the first chemistry, physics and natural history laboratories, expanded the library into one of the most complete in Latin America, and worked to replace rote learning with reasoning and personal research. In 1872 the Minister of Public Instruction, Abdón Cifuentes, ended the institute's monopoly on the examinations required for university entrance, a measure Barros Arana opposed as an attack on public education in favor of private schools. Disorder followed; in 1873 the government dismissed Barros Arana and permanently separated the university section, and student protests intensified. Cifuentes eventually resigned, and in 1874 Chile adopted freedom of education; students of private schools would henceforth be examined in state schools or by a commission of the University Council.
Under later rectors the school recovered order. Manuel José Olavarrieta (from 1875) abolished corporal punishment, founded a literary academy and in 1877 opened an evening school for adults. The school's library became a public library on 19 May 1876, and from 1877 Latin ceased to be compulsory. The War of the Pacific (1879–1884) reduced enrollment as many young men enlisted. Juan Nepomuceno Espejo, an alumnus who became rector in 1886 at age 26, would lead the school until 1926. In 1890 he inaugurated the library's new building at the corner of the Alameda and Arturo Prat, and in the 1890s the school adopted the "concentric" teaching system. In 1902 the boarding section was separated to form the Internado Nacional Barros Arana.
Centennial and the early twentieth century
For the centennial in 1913 the school held a student competition for a new anthem, since the 1813 hymn had fallen out of use. The result combined stanzas by the student Eduardo Moore, a stanza by a Spanish-born student, Pascual Baijes Valloerdú, and one by the teacher Ismael Parraguez, who also wrote the music. It was first performed on 10 August 1913. By then its library was among the most important in Latin America, its science laboratories were well developed and its gymnasium was one of the most modern in the country. Celebrations included a gala at the Municipal Theatre attended by prominent alumni.
In January 1929 Pablo Ramírez, a minister of Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, ordered the demolition of the school's library to make room for a swimming pool. The school recovered only 15,000 volumes; the rest were distributed among the National Library of Chile, the Pedagogical Institute, the University of Chile and other schools, and an unknown number were discarded. In 1931 the school's choir was established, and in 1936 the Boletín del Instituto Nacional began publication as its principal periodical. The Academy of Castilian Letters (ALCIN) was founded in 1940. In 1941 the former teacher and president Pedro Aguirre Cerda appointed rector Ulises Vergara as Minister of Education. The student center became a "student government" in 1947.
Modern building and municipalization In 1956 Congress approved Law 12.084, a motion by senator and alumnus Ángel Faivovich that financed studies for a new building for the school. The new building was built between 1960 and 1977 (see Campus). By Decree 618 of the Ministry of Education, published on 28 July 1976, the school was renamed "Instituto Nacional General José Miguel Carrera".
During the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, Chile's education system was fundamentally restructured and responsibility for most public schools was transferred to the municipalities. The school's student center (CAIN) and opposition parties rejected the change, but the junta pushed it through. In 1986 the school's administration passed to the Municipality of Santiago; rector Luis Molina Palacios, who had held the post since 1975 and opposed the reform, resigned, according to a former student writing in El Mostrador.
Student movements and conflict
From 2001 the Instituto Nacional became one of the schools leading student demands in Chile, participating in the Coordinating Assembly of Secondary Students and in marches, as well as in numerous strikes and building occupations. During the 2006 "Penguin Revolution", the 1986 municipalization was among the most criticized features of Chilean public education. The school has been described as playing a role in the 2006 protests for fairer education policies.