MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Battered Piñera sends a lady to prop his administration and challenge Michele

Schmidt was previously minister of the National Women's Service and the best-rated cabinet member with 71% approval rating

Chilean president Sebastian Piñera on Monday named the head of a government agency that promotes gender equality to be the new education minister. Carolina Schmidt replaces Harald Beyer, who was impeached by Congress last week.

The decision to name a woman is seen as a clear move by Piñera’s battered conservatives to counter the centre-left coalition which opinion polls anticipate could win comfortably the coming November presidential election, particularly since their likeliest candidate is Chile’s most popular former president, Michelle Bachelet.

Ms Schmidt was previously minister of the National Women's Service. She is the best-rated cabinet member among Chileans with a 71% approval rating, according to a recent survey by pollsters Adimark. But her new job will be daunting.

After two years of student marches that halted Chile's major cities and stoked expectations of change to a troubled system, the education reform debate is a key issue ahead of November's vote.

“The new education minister assumes a mandate that is ambitious, clear and very demanding,” Piñera said. “That mandate seeks to advance firmly, without hesitation, toward a country that can assure all its children and young people quality education.”

The senate impeached former minister Beyer last week for professional misconduct for failing to monitor profits in the education sector. Beyer, the most unpopular cabinet member, was banned from holding public office for five years.

His supporters say opposition lawmakers were politically motivated, trying to flex their muscles ahead of the vote. Beyer, a career veteran, advised previous governments on education policy and cut rates for student loans while in office.

Piñera' government has earmarked a considerable percentage of the 2013 budget on financing school loans at lower rates. But students say it's not enough and the system still fails them with poor public schools, expensive private universities, unprepared teachers and unaffordable loans.

Student leaders want to change the tax system so the rich pay more. They also want the state to resume control for the country's mostly privatized public universities to ensure quality and access.

Ms Bachelet who was nominated presidential candidate by her Socialist party a few weeks ago now must face a primary with the other hopefuls from the major party of the Concertacion coalition, the Christian democrats. But all bets are on her, who during the last few years was head of the UN’s newly created Women’s Department. 

And in case there are any doubts about what Ms Bachelet has in mind ahead of the election, she announced a gradual education reform plan to be financed partly by a fiscal review, very much in line with what the students and professors have been demanding.

Concertacion ruled Chile since the return of democracy in 1990 to 2010 when the conservative coalition of Piñera won the election.