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Show your support to Chile Students in their struggle for free education |
The UN Special Rapporteur for Education, Kishore Singh, has release a statement on the situation in Chile. Click here to read more.
Click here to download CLADE's Declaration in support of the Chilean students
Hundreds of thousands of students, teachers and members of the public have come together to demand free, quality education for all in Chile. The ongoing protests began in May 2011, demanding free public education and an end to profit in both secondary and higher education.
Chile has seen education increasingly used as a commodity to be bargained for. Over the last thirty years enrolment in city schools has fallen from 75% to 42%, and in the last 15 years 707 municipal schools have closed, and 2540 private schools (subsidized by the state) opened. The resulting competition for resources means that access to the best quality education is now restricted to those who can afford it; the Chilean education system has become one of the key sources of the growing inequality between rich and poor – of which Chile now has the largest in the region.
The government has not only failed to heed to the demand for free public education for all, but also aggravated conflict as the social movement has been brutally criminalized with the banning of public demonstrations. Tragically, one of the protesters, a 16 year boy, lost his life in late August after he was shot by a police officer during the latest two-day demonstrations. Furthermore, a group of students has been on hunger strike since July 19th – one of which is now in hospital.
The ongoing protests have seen a dynamic organisation of students, parents, teachers and the public of all ages. Students as young as 14 have sought legal advice in their negotiations with school administrations. They have organised school sleep-ins, school seizures and dance mobilisations. Yet mobilisation and government control is threatening and increasingly turning violent. Since the protests at the end of August 1300 people remained detained.
Chile’s National Forum on Quality Education, the Latin American Campaign for the Right to Education (CLADE) and the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) support the demands of the Chilean student movement. We demand the state to assume the role of guarantor for the protection and respect of all human rights, including education, that criminalization of the student movement cease immediately and that the killing of the 16 year old student does not go unpunished.
Please show your support:
UPLOAD YOUR PHOTOS showing support and solidarity to the Chile students and campaigners: http://www.flickr.com/photos/campaignforeducation
How to do this:
1. Take the photo holding your message of support
2. Email it to
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3. In the TITLE – place your message of support to Chile
4. In the body of the email place your name, country and any message of support
WRITE to President Piñera and Ministers:
WRITE YOUR OWN EMAIL to Chilean President Sebastián Piñera Echenique
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and the Minister of the Interior, Rodrigo Hinzpeter:
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Show your support to Chile Students in their struggle for free education