MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Chilean students will assess Piñera road map for education reform before next meeting
Student leader Camila Vallejo praised Saturday's talks but warned dialogue does not mean demobilization (Photo AP) Chile's student organizations are waiting for the road map promised for Monday by government authorities following Saturday’s meeting with President Sebastian Piñera for nearly four hours in the government palace.
The road map should help negotiations in search of a solution to the country's conflicts over education reform which has been ongoing for months.
That's a big step forward in Chile's education debate — the first face-to-face talks between both sides after more than three months of unilateral declarations, boycotted classes, mass marches, hunger strikes and violent confrontations with police.
President Sebastian Piñera led the behind-closed-doors meeting, and his education minister Felipe Bulnes later called it “a very positive encounter.”
Bulnes said he would on Monday provide all involved with a schedule for more negotiations, and is optimistic about finding solutions. “We agree on a great quantity of points,” he said.
High school and university students who have paralyzed classes in many of Chile's 25 main universities and kept about 200,000 high school students out of class said they would keep protesting, but meanwhile praised what they called a new attitude of openness from the government.
“We value his gesture” of Piñera, high school protest leader Rodolfo Ribera said afterward outside the palace.
University student leader Camila Vallejo praised Saturday's talks as the first opportunity for all sides to clearly present their positions. However she pointed out that de-mobilization was not a condition for dialogue, and anticipated that students are ready to take the streets again if necessary.
University leaders will analyze the situation and respond on Tuesday to Bulnes' plans for more talks. “This shows a great willingness to move forward, and that's important,” she added.
The students want profound changes including much more funding to ensure “free and equal quality education for all”.
They argue that this is best accomplished by reversing a decades-long trend of privatization in Chilean education, and barring profit-taking by education institutions that receive state funding — a position the government says it will never accept.
Since the beginning of the conflict President Piñera’s support according to public opinion polls has plunged to 25% while hundreds of high school and university campuses remain under control of the students.
Chile has the highest per capita income in Latin America but together with Brazil the most unfair distribution. The conflict occurs just a year ahead of municipal elections (2012) and a year later presidential 2013, to choose a successor to Conservative Piñera.
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Read all commentsGeeeeeeee.......
Sep 05th, 2011 - 03:53 am 0I had a jean jacket like that in the 60'es.......
It was a Lee.....
It didn't look soooooooooo good on me though ;-)
She certainly is a captivating character.....and wears a mean denim jacket.
Sep 05th, 2011 - 07:34 pm 0OK, the Government want to take the heat out of the protest incrementally; the ‘students’ want a new (social) system. It was ever thus, the whole world over.
Sep 06th, 2011 - 02:42 pm 0(From this article), what, specifically, do the ‘students’ want to be different?
1. ‘Free education’ as a constitutional right.
There is no such thing as ‘free education’; the people pay; the tax-payers. Many more people will need to become tax-payers and pay higher taxes to meet this demand.
2. Improving access to education for low-income applicants; grants and scholarships.
Good in itself, but many more people will need to become tax-payers and pay higher taxes to meet this demand.
3. Greater recognition for the rights of indigenous students.
Good in itself, but are we talking about people with Chilean nationality, or the ‘native Chilean’ community? Do the two groups have different rights?
4. Ending municipal oversight of low-performing schools.
If not the municipal authorities, who should have oversight of performance? The State Ministry of Education? The ‘students’ themselves?
5. An end to ‘for-profit’ educational institutions.
‘Profiteering in schools’ = private schooling, includes religious schools/international schools/foreign & overseas colleges/etc. If corruption is the issue, end corruption; do not deny ‘private’ enterprise the right to educate certain of the nation’s children.
6. Stopping private banks financing tuition loans.
There is nothing intrinsically wrong with any bank being used as the Loan Company; all that is needed is good and honest oversight.
There is only one ‘Crunch issue’ here - the right to be educated outside the state system.
But the nation will need to be educated through the media that this 'new world of education' comes at a significant cost,
and it is them, through more and heavier taxes, that will be bearing this cost.
They may choose to do so, and this could become the key ballot box issue.
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