For over five hours, the Demre platform displayed an erroneous message to applicants for pedagogy programs, warning they did not meet requirements despite many doing so. This glitch hit at the start of the 2026 admission process, amid recent legislative changes lowering the minimum score to 543 points. Experts urge assessing the impact to prevent misinformation in the vital teaching sector.
On Monday, January 6, 2026, starting at 9 a.m., dozens of applicants to pedagogy programs in Chile encountered a confusing message on the Department of Evaluation, Measurement, and Educational Registry (Demre) platform. For 5 hours and 20 minutes, the system warned: “The preference (...) presents the following observation: you do not meet the requirement to apply for a pedagogy career, as defined by Law No. 20.903 and its amendments. Add anyway?”. However, many of these students did meet the updated requirements.
The error stemmed from the platform not reflecting changes in a law approved by the Chamber of Deputies on December 17, 2025, which extended and modified entry requirements for pedagogies. This law set a minimum average score of 543 in the obligatory tests of Reading Comprehension and Mathematics 1, down from the previous 626 under the original law. The 2026 career offerings were published on September 25 without this update, forcing Demre to initially use the old threshold.
The glitch created uncertainty, especially in a country facing a teacher shortage. A student with 567 points, eligible to apply, said: “I'm just finding out now that it was an error”. On networks like TikTok, users sought help: “Help! Why is this coming up? Someone please explain”.
Verónica Cabezas, executive director of Elige Educar, voiced concern: “We are deeply worried that (...) students (...) faced contradictory information about whether they met the legal access requirements, generating hours of uncertainty”. Raúl Figueroa, former Education Minister, called it a “lamentable corollary of a very poorly managed process”. Leonor Varas, Demre director, clarified it was a “limited visualization incident” that did not prevent applications and was promptly fixed.
Later, Demre adjusted the minimum to 543 based on the 33rd percentile from the previous rendition, excluding those with 542 points. The application process ends on Thursday, January 8, at 1 p.m., allowing time for corrections.
