Chile Forum

Chile moves up school vacations as protests rage

Chile's government is moving up winter break at more than 200 schools occupied by student protesters who are demanding improvements in the education system.

Education Minister Joaquin Lavin says the order will ensure students don't miss more classes after about a month of protests and occupations of public schools and universities. The change moves up the start of winter vacation by 12 days to Wednesday in schools in the country's capital.

Student spokesman Freddy Fuentes says the government's action reflects its "inability to resolve conflicts."

The move comes a day after high school and university students rejected a government offer and called a general strike for Thursday that will include students and teachers.

Chile: New National Strike against For-Profit Education

Santiago de Chile - The Chilean Students Federation and Teachers' Association prepared a new national strike on Thursday to demand free, public education.

The organizers want to stop privatization and for-profit education conditioned by the market, said Jaime Gajardo, president of the Teachers' Association, which, together with the students, is organizing a march Thursday from Plaza Italia to Plaza de los Heroes.

According to Gajardo, students are not asking for better funding of higher education, referring to a government proposal to provide more financing for universities.

The main question is that authorities want to elude the subject of public education for the Chilean people, the student leader said.

The Central Labor Federation (CUT) on Monday announced that it would join the demonstration and suggested a two-day national strike in late August to protest the neoliberal model.

The decision to support the professors and students is based on the fact that it is working-class families who must pay the high cost of their children's education, said Arturo Martinez, CUT president.

Chilean left-wing forces such as the Communist Party and the Allende Party of Socialism (PSA) will also support the mobilization against for-profit education.

cali_chile48 wrote: From what I have seen and heard, most of the private schools and semi-private schools are back in session. The public schools are the ones that have been shut down.

Chile’s Education Minister Gives Schools ‘En Toma’ Early Vacation

Joaquin Lavín says ministry must adjust calendar to make up for lost days

In an attempt to prevent students from missing more classes – and to defuse a volatile public high school population - Chilean Education Minister Joaquín Lavín announced on Tuesday that students at high schools that have been taken over or whose students and faculty are on strike will start their winter vacation on Wednesday, two weeks ahead of schedule.

Lavín also said that the school year for some schools “en toma”, or taken over, will extend until Jan. 14 and if the tomas continue much longer, some schools may stay in session until the end of January—a month after the school year typically ends.

“The reason is to stop the students from continuing to miss classes,” Lavín told La Tercera. “Starting tomorrow (Wednesday) any missed classes won’t increase the days in the school calendar, because it’ll be winter vacation.”

The minister met with provincial directors of education in the Metropolitan Region on Tuesday morning to examine how to adapt the academic calendar for the 206 schools that the ministry says were taken over. The Carabineros, Chile’s police force, estimate the number of schools en toma to actually be 232.

The winter vacation will now go from June 29 until July 13; the two-week holiday normally begins in the middle of July and lasts until August.

The Chilean school year typically ends on Dec. 22, but Lavín said he was forced to adjust the calendar so that students will meet school attendance requirements for the year.

“We are going to authorize that the high schools that are taken over can have classes in the month of January,” Lavín said. “Today, there are already several high schools that are ending January 14, and if the tomas continue, they would finish at the end of the month.”

High school students think Lavín’s decision is just an attempt to destabilize the movement.

Freddy Fuentes, spokesperson for the Metropolitan Federation of Secondary Students (Femes), told Chile’s national television station TVN that the winter break wouldn’t affect the student movement, adding that Lavín is incapable of resolving the conflict.

“I don’t believe it’s going to affect us because we already have mobilizations scheduled,” Fuentes said. “We’re going to continue whether the vacations come or not.”

A protest has already been planned for Thursday, and students said Lavín’s “vacation” wouldn’t stop them from marching. Organizers expect this march to be the biggest yet.

Jose Soto, president of the Instituto Nacional student group Centro de Alumnos, agrees with Fuentes. He called Lavín’s winter break idea an attempt to distract the students from their fight.

“It’s not going to have any effect,” Soto said. “We here at the Instituto Nacional are going to continue en toma.”

Students at the Instituto Nacional, one of Santiago’s oldest high schools, have been en toma for 16 days.

Soto, who became president of the group in April, said an extended school year into the end of January wouldn’t impact their cause either.

“The mobilization is to change the Chilean education system and we’re committed to that, it’s why we are where we are and why we are not going to budge,” Soto said.

Lavín said he was sorry that things had come this far, that the government had to change the calendar, but that the ministry had no other choice.

“We have done everything we possibly can,” Lavín said. “We have answered the petitions point by point, but at the same time, our obligation, as the Ministry of Education, is to go ahead and protect the school year.”

Lavín already created alternative locations for students who do not wish to participate in the mobilizations to study. He said that was imperative, especially for students prepping for Chile’s university entrance exam, the PSU, which is taken in November.

Isaac Gajardo, a student at the Universidad Alberto Hurtado, called Lavín and the Ministry of Education desperate for proposing the extension of the school year.

“Two things: One, it’s premature and two, they will not succeed in slowing down the movement with this type of measure,” Gajardo said via Twitter.

greg~judy wrote:FYI _ FWIW...
still waiting for p~x to post some pix of "revolting" students

Chile police tear gas education protesters

SANTIAGO — Police fired tear gas and water cannons on at least 100,000 demonstrators in the Chilean capital Thursday, and arrested 13 during the biggest protest in two months demanding educational reforms.

Angry protesters hurtled sticks, rocks and metal objects like pies as police responded from armored vehicles in the violent culmination of what had been a peaceful, festive and colorful demonstration, the sixth of its kind.

A police officer was hurt and 13 people were arrested. Organizers estimated a crowd of about 200,000 people participated in the demonstration, while local media gave an estimate of 100,000. No official figures were immediately available.

Rioting broke out at the end of a sprawling demonstration on the streets of downtown Santiago, including a huge crowd waving flags and banners outside La Moneda presidential palace.

A cellphone shop was ransacked and protesters attacked police at the Brazilian embassy in Santiago in an attempt to breach the security barriers and occupy the building. The embassy is located just across the Ministry of Education in the center of the capital.

"This is historic. Since the return of democracy, we haven't seen anything this big," said Giorgio Jackson, a student leader.

The unrest came two weeks after some 70,000 people took to the streets calling for greater government investment in public education, which now totals 4.4 percent of Chile's gross domestic product compared with the seven percent of GDP for developed countries recommended by the United Nations.

"The strikes and protests are legitimate, but that's not how we will improve education. You need work, study, responsibility and engagement for that," said President Sebastian Pinera, a conservative multimillionaire businessman.

Students and professors want the Chilean government to retake control over the Chilean public schools that educate 90 percent of the country's 3.5 million students.

Control of the public school system was ceded to local municipalities during the 1973-1990 military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.

Nearly 100,000 Chilean students demonstrate in Santiago

Santiago - Close to 100,000 Chilean students and teachers demonstrated Thursday in front of the presidential palace in Santiago demanding reform in the country's public education system.

The conservative government of President Sebastian Pinera has rejected student demands, which include tax reforms to finance education and healthcare and changes in the constitution.

'They slammed the door on dialogue insofar as they make demands that show they are not in favour of coming to an agreement,' said Education Minister Joaquin Lavin.

It was one of the largest demonstrations in Chile over the past 20 years. Towards the end, hundreds of police officers on foot and on horseback clashed with demonstrators.

'We want free and good-quality public education,' some of the banners displayed by the students read.

'We are fighting for better education,' said student leader Camila Vallejos. 'We want the government to understand that this is a political movement.'

A further 30,000 protesters rallied in the nearby city of Valparaiso.

Hundreds of schools had been occupied by students, in a protest movement that was a serious challenge to Pinera's government. Even from within his own party there came calls for a Cabinet reshuffle.

Demonstrators, some of them as young as 12, have held scores of protests so far this year, with similar demands.

Official statistics appear to back up claims that the educational system deepens social inequality in Chile.

Among the poorest 10 per cent of the population, only 60 per cent of young people under 24 finish secondary school. Among the wealthiest 10 per cent, the rate is as high as 97 per cent.

Less than 17 per cent of poor young people have access to higher education in Chile, compared to 60 per cent among the wealthy.

greg~judy wrote:FYI _ FWIW...
still waiting for p~x to post some pix of "revolting" students