Chilean Educational Protests See Change of Guard

As the country slows down for the summer break following more than six months of crippling education protests, Chile is experiencing a changing of the guard: students voted in new leaders on December 7 and President Sebastián Piñera swore in his administration’s third education minister, Harald Beyer, on December 29. The new minister, an education expert who critics say lacks political experience, said that “doors will be open” for dialogue. But student groups, who are protesting a system they say favors the elite and does not do enough to create social mobility, have elected a more radicalized leadership less inclined to acquiesce to the government’s offer to compromise.

Chilean students began taking to the streets in May 2011 to protest an educational system they see as profit-driven and favoring the country’s elite. Working under the leadership of immensely popular activist Camila Vallejo, leader of the University of Chile’s influential student federation up until their December elections, the students succeeded in extracting concessions from Piñera’s conservative administration. Most notably, the government agreed to a 7.2 percent increase in the 2012 education budget, bringing the overall figure to $11 billion.

The government did not, however, agree to the protestors’ main demand: the end of the for-profit system and the creation of free education for all Chileans. The government views this option as financially untenable and says that free education would unfairly benefit the section of the population actually able to pay. Talks then fell apart in October. Since then, protests—some violent—as well as school and university occupations have continued. The movement seems to be winding down for the summer break, and the occupations of the University of Chile’s Casa Central and the Instituto Nacional (one of the country’s most exclusive high schools) have ended. But student organizers announced that 70 educational institutions around the country would remain occupied. In an interview, Gabriel Boric, who replaced Vallejo as leader of Chile’s most influential student group, indicated that student protests would continue into 2012. While both sides say the will exists to break the impasse, the new student leadership is more radicalized. Chilean political scientist Patricio Navia argues that this leaves the movement in danger of succumbing to populism. He warns that the “movement will be remembered as being ideologically pure, but not very effective. Looking for the revolution, it will lose the ability to influence gradual concrete change in the right direction.”

Meanwhile, on December 29 Piñera accepted the resignation of Education Minister Felipe Bulnes, who held the position since July and cited “personal reasons” as the cause for his departure. Beyer immediately replaced him. The new minister, considered an expert on Chilean education, voiced support for a more equal and improved educational system. In response to accusations of political inexperience, Beyer stated: “I don’t believe political inexperience is a barrier as such; I believe what’s important is to create spaces for dialogue.” In response to Beyer’s nomination, Boric said: “We hope the government leaves behind the intransigence it showed [in 2011] and we can move forward together to advance education in this country.”

Learn More:

• Visit the Chilean Ministry of Education website.
• Read a profile of Gabriel Boric in La Tercera.
• Follow Gabriel Boric and Camila Vallejo on Twitter.
• Watch The Atlantic's In Focus blog photo slideshow of the protests.