Police for a second day used water cannons to scatter demonstrations by high school students that turned violent when masked protesters started throwing rocks on Wednesday near downtown Santiago.
Both police and student leaders blamed the violence on the masked individuals, who hurled stones at police and passing cars, calling them infiltrators.
Police appeared to act in an unusually restrained manner after television images on Tuesday showed violent suppression of the protests and the beating at least three reporters, prompting President Michelle Bachelet on Wednesday to fire the commander of the Santiago riot police, Colonel Osvaldo Jara.
Police violence "was outrageous, unjustified" Bachelet told a brief news conference, standing alongside the president of Chile's Journalists Association, Alejandro Guilier.
The violence on Tuesday erupted as thousands of public school students supporting demands for reform in Chile's education law took to the streets in Santiago and other cities.
Police said at least 12 people were injured in those clashes, including two police officers and three reporters, and more that 700 demonstrators were arrested.
More than 600,000 students joined the stoppage around the country to back their demands, which Bachelet called "fully legitimate and justified." Many private schools joined in solidarity, including the one attended by Bachelet's younger daughter. The strike was supposed to last only one day, but the students decided to extend it through Wednesday.
On Wednesday the government and students leaders opened a second day of talks.
The students' main demand is an overall reform of the dictatorship-era education law which turned control of public education over to municipalities.
The students want the central government to retake responsibility as "the only means to ensure the end of inequality" between poor and rich schools.
Other demands include elimination of an exit test that allows students to apply to college and free public transportation for poorer students.
While both the government and the students said they have agreed not to comment on the development of their talks, progress was reported.
The president said she agrees on the need to change the education law, which was issued by former dictator Augusto Pinochet the day before he left power in 1990.
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