LGE - Chile's Future

While having lunch during my first day in Santiago, I saw a news broadcast about a student and professors' protest in the city center. They are demonstrating against the General Education Law (Ley General de Educación), which is currently under congressional consideration.

If I have understood everything correctly, this law will replace the Ley Orgánica Conctitucional de Educación (Organic Constitutional Education Law), which people were not happy with, but it allegedly does not solve any of the current problems. The issues appear to be the presence of a profit motive in the educational system and the fact that not everyone has access to quality education.

I only saw the aftermaths of the demonstration, where students had barricaded themselves inside the National University of Chile and the Instituto Nacional, and police were crowding outside. 40 people are said to have been detained throughout the country in these protests.

Here's one of the posters pasted on the University wall.

June 4, 2008