About 100,000 Chilean youths march for better education

Aug 18, 2011, 17:32 GMT

Santiago - An estimated 100,000 Chilean youths marched in Santiago Thursday despite persistent rain to demand free, good-quality public education.

Students rejected the latest proposal of Chilean President Sebastian Pinera's government to end a strike that has been ongoing for three months.

'There is a lot of ambiguity in the government proposal, they should learn to govern,' said university student leader Camila Vallejo, aged 23.

In Chile, most schools and all universities charge monthly fees.

Students are demanding free access to a university education for at least 70 per cent of the country's people. So far, however, the government has agreed only to grant scholarships to 40 per cent of university students, with loans to be made available for the rest.

Demonstrators are also demanding reform of the Chilean school system.

About 30 pupils are on hunger strike across the country to support those demands. Three teenagers were hospitalized Wednesday due to the effects of a 31-day hunger strike, including life-threatening heart problems.

Students have been rallying periodically in the largest demonstrations in Chile since the end of the military dictatorship in 1990.

The ongoing protests have eroded Pinera's approval rating, which sank to 26 per cent, according to a poll earlier this month, the worst of any Chilean president since the restoration of democracy.

A local representative for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) agreed with protesters earlier this week that 'Chile has one of the most segmented education systems in Latin America, and indeed one of the most segmented in the world.'

'This means that if you are poor (in Chile), you get a poor education. If you are rich, you get an excellent education,' said Gary Stahl, UNICEF representative in Chile.