Thousands protest Chile educational reforms
Clashes have erupted between Chilean police forces and thousands of people protesting government educational reforms and a crackdown on demonstrators in the capital, Santiago.
The clashes took place as thousands of students and teachers gathered in the capital, on Wednesday.
Teachers also demanded an improvement in their working conditions.
Reports say police used water cannons to break up crowds of protesters.
The clashes come days after Chile’s largest teachers’ union announced an indefinite strike over the reforms, saying they would propose the reorganization of the salary-scale for teachers and increase the amount of time they would be required to spend in "non-school hours."
Last month, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet announced reforms that would make university education free for 60 percent of the nation's poorest students, starting next year. Student protesters are demanding reforms be implemented sooner.
In May, two students were killed in similar clashes in the Chilean port city of Valparaiso.
Last October, the lower house of Chile’s parliament approved a bill to stop schools that receive public money from making profit. Bachelet signed the bill into law on January 26.
For years, students in Chile have been demanding greater participation in overhauling a largely privatized and highly unequal education system put in place during the dictatorship of Chile’s late Augusto Pinochet in 1973-1990.
However, since 2011, Bachelet has been witnessing protests demanding the implementation of education reforms to increase the salaries of teachers and introduce free university education.
Bachelet was reelected in late 2013, with promises to undertake reforms, including free university education for the country's poor.
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