The Guardian 14 June, 2006
Chile: student actions end in victory
In mid-May, more than 700,000 students walked out of their classes at public high schools, demanding improvements to public education and an end to the discriminatory education system. Their demands included more teachers and smaller classes, building works for schools, federal funding for public education, the elimination of national college entrance exam fees and free bus fares.
The Chilean media reports that hundreds of schools were occupied by students, sleeping there overnight with supportive parents bringing them meals.
Thousands marched in the streets of the capital Santiago and other cities as actions spread across the nation. Public support increased after the police savagely attacked marching students. They used tear gas and water canons on students, some as young as 12.
The recently elected President of Chile, Michele Bachelet condemned what she described as the "excesses, abuses and unjustified violence". The head of the police special forces unit has since been fired.
When President Bachelet was elected last March she promised to lead a government that was more tolerant and nurturing and welcomed greater citizen participation. She is a paediatrician and a survivor of the fascist Pinochet dictatorship.
At the very end of his 17-year rule, General Pinochet had issued a decree greatly reducing the central government’s involvement in and supervision of education. Instead, authority was shifted to communities and education was opened up to free market forces, with private companies allowed to compete with the Roman Catholic Church, traditionally the main provider of private schooling.
Although funding for public schools has increased since then, gross inequalities persist, with according to one recent study, private schools spending at least five times more per student than the poorest public schools.
Students, and the teachers who had joined them, ended their actions after President Bachelet announced a US$135-million-a-year package that includes a free lunch program for the poorest students, the repair or renovation of up to 1,200 public schools and the elimination of the $40 college exam fee.
"The state will be the guarantor of a quality education for all Chileans", she promised, adding that the nation’s youth deserved "to be able to study in dignified conditions".
Student leaders initially rejected the proposal, but then ended their actions saying they were satisfied.
President Bachelet said she was "pleased that now we will get back to working for what is important in our country, which is to improve the quality of education, and to work together."