La Marcha

Last Thursday, 4 August, Santiago university students took to the streets in protest without permission from the government. For several weeks now, university students from mostly Santiago but also from other cities in Chile, as well as high school students, have been protesting for free and better quality tertiary education.

As the police took to the streets with tear gas, arresting people as they went, the students retreated to their houses. In the evening a strange thunder began to roar from the neighbouring houses. An act oh-so-familiar to the Pinochet era, people had actually begun to bang on their pots and pans in protest from the safety of their houses. I had never heard anything like it before. The thunder went on well into the night, as cars frequently passed by honking their horns. Thursday has become the day of protest for the students and their sympathisers.

Having worked at a university at the beginning of the year, I know how bad the quality of tertiary education can be and how expensive the classes are. My students were young, immature and badly disciplined which meant that they were failing. The policy at the private university was if a student failed a subject and the student intended to re-take the class in order to gain their degree, they had to pay the full semester of classes again. This was a university that hosted students from the lower socio-economical areas of the city. Their parents painstakingly saved the money for their education because in Chile, just having done a degree of 5 years means getting a better job.

If the duration of your degree was less than 5 years, then it is consider a practical degree, not a ‘proper’ degree. There is no government support to students unless they can prove they are poor enough to receive help. This means all fees must be paid up front. The only universities that have a highschool grades emission policy are rare and are mostly public with few positions on offer. This means all other universities are private. There is an absolute abundance of them. They are businesses that prey on the poor who seek to escape the shackles of poverty but end up wasting their money on so-called institutions that barely educate their children.

So the protest for better education seems only too appropriate but unfortunately, it isn't as black and white as this. In a corrupt system so far advanced, it is almost impossible to make education free for the protestors, none of which come from affluent backgrounds. The situation is becoming more and more complicated as students refuse to accept any negotiations and will not stop until they get exactly what they are asking for, right to the full stop.

And to make the situation worse, delinquents looking to sabotage constantly shadow the protests. Santiago centro has become their target area, where shops have began to close up early on Thursday afternoons to avoid vandalism. Last Thursday, during the surprise protests, herds of youth broke into a clothing store and having stolen the merchandise, they then set it on fire. With thugs like this taking to the streets every week now, will the protests even be able to stop?

(Image by Roberto Candia )