Matt Bostock Photography

“Don’t be a fool, reform the schools,” chanted over 1,000 students marching along Santiago’s main downtown street, Alameda, demanding public education reforms on Wednesday.University and high school students marched along Av. Paraguay and Curico St., culminating at Paseo Bulnes, near presidential palace La Moneda. Five representatives met with government Secretary General Carolina Tohá to deliver a letter explaining their demands. The letter, addressed to Chilean President Michele Bachelet, requests better finance for educational establishments and subsidies for indebted students.

Protestors gathered for the march at Plaza Italia at 10am, organized by the Universidad de Chile Students’ Federation (FECH) and other private education institutions. Presidents of FECH, the Universidad Alberto Hurtado Students’ Federation (FEUAH) and the Universidad de Valparaíso’s Santiago Campus Students’ Federation (FEUV Santiago) called for the Chilean government to make education more affordable and accessible.

“We want the country to know that the education crisis continues,” said Federico Huneeus, President of FECH. “We want a high quality, public, education.”

“We are calling for changes to the current institution, which is exclusive, leaves the majority of students in debt and discriminates against establishments not accredited by the Council of Rectors (CRUCH). We want the government … to shut down the CRUCH, to end the current university entry system and to provide a new way to finance universities,” said Jonathan Serracino, President of FEUAH.

“In Chile, the state does not finance higher education … we have to pay more and more fees,” said 20-year-old Klaus Lehmaun Melendez, a sociology student at the Universidad de Chile. “[We hope that] that government will increase direct financial support.”

High school students attended to give their support, although their reason for participating in the march was unclear to some. “I have no idea what you are talking about,” said 17-year-old Olof Palme Juan Flores when asked about the proposed reforms to higher education.

Presidential hopeful Pamela Jiles was at Plaza Italia to show her support, although she admitted that she has “no proposals” to improve education in Chile, preferring to listen to “the orders of my [Jiles’s] people.”

The march took place relatively peacefully, with little interaction between police and protesters. A small minority of students began throwing rocks at armored police vehicles in Almagro Park after the march, to which the police responded with tear gas. Mounted police attempted to move the crowd on, crushing the foot of Felipe Gamboa, a photographer working for the iStock agency. Police made 36 arrests for public disorder and two for damage to public property.