

The student strike is incredible here: it is amazing how the youth are able to band together and organize themselves to fight for change. The students are not striking for unreasonable reasons – in fact they are protesting for very good reasons. They are fighting for a more better and just education. Some of the things they want are cheaper student bus fares, smaller fees in the required college entrance exams, and a more equal education for all.


“Less than three months after she took office promising to lead a government that welcomed greater citizen participation, President Michelle Bachelet is facing her first domestic crisis. To the surprise of many here, the challenge comes not from the right but from a group expected to be sympathetic to her center-left coalition: high school students.”
“In protests that began in mid-May, more than 700,000 teenagers have walked out of classes at public high schools, demanding the overhaul of an education system they say is inferior and discriminatory. They have occupied several hundred schools, sleeping there overnight with sympathetic parents bringing them meals, and last week thousands marched in the streets of the capital here and in other cities in this nation of 16 million.”
“Their demands include more teachers and school construction, so as to reduce class sizes, and also the elimination of fees for the national college entrance exam and free bus fare. With prices of copper, the country's chief export, at record highs and government coffers bulging with years of budget surpluses, the students maintain that the state can afford to invest more in education.”
“The student movement enjoys widespread popular support here. The backing increased last week after the national police beat some marchers and sprayed others, a few as young as 12 and many dressed in black and white school uniforms, with tear gas and water cannons. The head of the police special forces unit has since been fired, and Ms. Bachelet has condemned what she described as the "excesses, abuses and unjustified violence."
It will be interesting to see how the actions of the students change the quality of education and I hope that their demands are met. For all of us studying here, the determined youth continue to be an example for us as to how strong a movement can be even if the ages of the supporters is young.
New York Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/05/world/americas/05chile.html?ex=1150171200&en=5ece87e4f87e28d1&ei=5070&emc=eta1
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