Chile has taxpayer-funded public schools, schools subsidized by a voucher-like system, and elite private schools where a month's tuition costs an average month's salary. But even in many private schools, students complain of few books, graffiti-covered desks, filthy bathrooms and peeling paint.
"If Chile continues with a high level of inequality, there will be no social mobility, and there will not be opportunities for 90 percent of our children. That means simply having a pressure cooker without an escape valve, and it will explode," warned Dante Contreras, an economics professor at the University of Chile, who was named to Bachelet's new 73-member education advisory council, which includes 12 students.
And like the penguins that return to nest along Chile's frigid coastline each year, the students say they will be back on the streets to protest if real reforms are not made.
"We are not going to stop just like that" Gordillo said. "This is not a game."
RSS