During the strike, the students pushed back on some of the police vehicles. Ueslei Marcelino / Reuters
About 350 thousand people marched throughout the cities of Chile on Wednesday against proposed changes to the education system. Some 200 thousand people marched in the capital of Santiago. Wednesday’s march and Thursday’s events (below) were planned to coincide with Chile’s national men’s soccer(football) team participates in the opening game of the Copa Americas.
They planned to hand deliver a document to the Ministry of Education listing various strategic demands they wish to have included in the reform. “Seven points deal with what we want to obtain, like public funding, the necessity of stable work conditions and a career that dignifies the teacher’s career,” Valentina Saavedra, spokesperson of the Confederation of Students of Chile (Confech), told teleSUR.
The defiant and at times jubilant demonstrations clogged the main thoroughfares for a little over an hour before police repression ensued. A now common site at the recent education protests. Marches held on the 21st and 28thof this month were also brutally repressed, claiming the life of 28yr old student Rodrigo Aviles and wounding dozens.
Student-led demonstrations, which have demanded reform in the country’s education system, have been ongoing since 2011. Recent demonstrations took place on the
TeleSUR – The government of President Michelle Bachelet has already approved the first part of the education reform process, which will gradually ban profits, tuition fees and selective admissions practices in privately-owned primary and secondary schools that receive State subsidies. The second phase of the education reform bill, which is currently going through Congress, has only partially met the demands of students. Students are concerned that the state will not allocate sufficient funds in order for the reform to go ahead and say the government may backtrack on its promise. The Ministry of Education is studying a controversial proposal to charge a special tax on professionals who have completed higher education and earn a high wage. The government of Michelle Bachelet has committed to providing universal higher education by 2016 in response to the massive student protests that plagued the administration of her predecessor Sebastian Piñera. The total cost of Bachelet’s proposed education reforms is estimated at around US$8 billion.
Marching to the Ministry of Education a group of Teachers and Students made their own football(soccer) game. The repression on the demonstration was swift. Police attacked unprovoked, using water cannons dosed with capsaicin, the chemical irritant in pepper spray. Many students reported skin burns and blisters from the the chemical attack.
