Strike!

OK, so the question I often get about being here is the extent to which I keep up with the news/know what's going on in Chile. The answer: not a whole lot. BUT I have become really interested in the current education reform (or lack thereof) here, and not only because class gets cancelled ...

A little bit of background: Chile is a country with a big discrepancy when it comes to income distribution, and the school system reflects it. Similar to big cities in the US, the public education system is poor, but wealthy families can afford to send their children to private schools. However, this is even more important when it comes to college than in the US because of two things: The PSU entrance exam and the lack of scholarships. Here, university acceptance is based solely on the PSU test, a test similar to the SAT. Also, scholarships to university are few and far between, so going to a good high school is absolutely vital, yet nearly impossible unless you're from a well-off family.

In 2006, the high school students held a strike and took over the schools, canceling classes for over a month in protest. In the end however, the changes made to the system were more superficial than substantive: they lowered the cost of transportation for students and of taking the PSU, but no real structural changes came out of if.

Jump forward to last week:

Wednesday, April 1st: Congress passes the LGE (General Education Law), which has been in the works for 2 years to reform the education system. Unfortunately, the right wing coalition - La Alianza por Chile - managed to keep in a lot of their provisions, especially Article 46, which allows university graduates without teacher training to teach in their area of expertise. As a result, the new law still isn't very different than the law it replaces, enacted by dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1990.

Thursday, April 2nd: La Universidad de Chile (aka La Chile) goes on strike. This is observed by the students of most departments, but especially at Campus Juan Gomez, where the Facultad de Humanidades is located and where my Ethnolinguistics class is held. Going on strike means the campus is open and the faculty and staff show up, but students don't attend class. They still hang out around campus a lot though.

Wednesday, April 8th: An assembly is held by university students to discuss the issue and course of action. It is led by FECH (The Federation of Students of La Chile) and CONFECH (The Federation of Chilean Students). Afterwards, around noon, over 3 thousand students and teachers took to the streets in protest.

Thursday, April 16th: A national strike is being organized. More than just La Chile, university and high school students, along with the National Labor Center, are being called on strike in order to show that they will not accept the LGE in its current state and to pressure President Michelle Bachelet into vetoing it.

In short, it's all very exciting and very unlike anything that would happen in the US, and especially at Georgetown. Can't wait to see how it turns out!