Chile, Argentina, Uruguay protest for quality education
Re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett
This month amid education protests, writer Isabel Allende visits Chile’s schools and talks with students, teachers and parents about literature. Allende says the purpose of her tour is not political but she supports the students and teachers and believes it is necessary to reach a fair agreement for the future.
“Education in Chile,” she says, “needs deep reforms because it is one of the reasons for the tremendous social and economic inequalities that bring shame to our country.
“Economic development in our country is very good—other countries envy us for that; but the distribution of income and access to educational and work opportunities place us at the forefront of countries with the highest levels of inequality in the world.”
Isabel Allende is a Chilean writer (born in Peru) with U.S. citizenship.
In the past three months, tens of thousands of teachers, students, parents and labor activists have marched in central Santiago to demand reforms from the conservative government of President Sebastian Pinera.
The Santiago Times reported yesterday, “Students want the state to take over the public school system, where 90 percent of the country’s 3.5 million students are educated.” The system “is currently run by local authorities, which protesters say results in deep inequalities.
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| Andean Peoples - Source: Britannica |
“Chile has the highest per capita income of any country in Latin America but the Andean nation also has the most skewed income disparity in the region.
“Students also want more affordable higher education: most Chilean college students take out loans to go to private for-profit universities because public colleges are few and underfunded.”
Educational reform protests, reports say, have taken place not only in Santiago, home to nearly 40 percent of Chile’s population and nucleus of this reform movement, but also throughout Chile and in Argentina and Uruguay. “While student organizers told media that 150,000 people marched through Chile’s capital for national education reform on Tuesday, their nationwide attendance estimate was 500,000.”
A Chilean professor calls the condition in Chile “Educational Apartheid”
A recent BBC News article references Chilean professor Mario Waissbluth, national coordinator of the citizens’ group ‘Educacion 2020’ describing the situation in Chile as “‘educational apartheid’” and concluding that this condition “lies at the heart of the current unrest.”
Professor Waissbluth said of 65 countries participating in the PISA [Program for International Student Assessment] tests, “Chile ranked 64th in terms of segregation across social classes in its schools and colleges.”
Sources and notes
Isabel Allende Llona, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the ‘magic realist’ tradition, is famous for novels such as The House of the Spirits (La casa de los espíritus) (1982) and City of the Beasts (La ciudad de las bestias) (2002), which have been commercially successful. Allende has been called ‘the world’s most widely read Spanish-language author.’ In 2010, she received Chile’s National Literature Prize. In 2004, Allende was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Allende’s novels are sometimes based on her personal experiences and often pay homage to the lives of women, while weaving together elements of myth and realism. She has lectured and toured and taught literature at many U.S. colleges. Allende adopted American citizenship in 2003 and has lived in California with her husband since 1989. [Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabel_Allende]
“Isabel Allende to tour Chile’s schools” (Zach Simon editor@santiagotimes.cl)), August 10, 2011,
http://www.santiagotimes.cl/culture/events/22186-isabel-allende-to-tour-chiles-schools?qh=
Zach Simon: Originally from New York, majored in journalism at the University of Arizona, and spent a semester studying Spanish in Viña del Mar, Chile. After graduating in May 2010, he returned to Chile to teach English in Santiago.
“Student protests turn violent in Chile — Riot police break up protests after thousands march peacefully in Santiago to demand education reforms,” August, 10, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/08/201189222421236242.html
“Chile’s student protests stretch beyond the streets of Santiago” (Benjamin Schneider, editor@santiagotimes.cl), August 10, 2011, http://www.santiagotimes.cl/chile/education/22194-chiles-student-protests-stretch-beyond-the-streets-of-santiago Benjamin Schneider is a graduate of Tufts University with a degree in Spanish and international relations, focusing on Latin America. He began working with the Santiago Times while in Chile and now contributes from abroad.
“Chile student protests point to deep discontent” (Gideon Long), August 11, 2011, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-14487555
OECD
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) promotes policies intended to improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world.
The OECD provides a forum in which governments can work together to share experiences and seek solutions to common problems. It works with governments to understand what drives economic, social and environmental change and measures productivity and global flows of trade and investment. The OECD analyzes and compares data to predict future trends and sets international standards on all sorts of things, from the safety of chemicals and nuclear power plants to the quality of cucumbers. http://www.oecd.org/pages/0,3417,en_36734052_36734103_1_1_1_1_1,00.html
PISA
The OECD Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) answers such as whether students are well prepared for future challenges — can they analyze, reason and communicate effectively? Do they have the capacity to continue learning throughout life?
Every three years, through its surveys of 15-year-olds in the principal industrialized countries, PISA assesses how far students near the end of compulsory education have acquired some of the knowledge and skills essential for full participation in society. http://www.pisa.oecd.org/pages/0,2987,en_32252351_32235731_1_1_1_1_1,00.html
“Chile police clash with protesters during student march — Clashes have erupted in the Chilean capital, Santiago, as thousands of students marched to press their demands for changes to the education system,” August 10, 2011, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-14459281
ANDEAN
Andean Peoples are aboriginal inhabitants of the area of the Central Andes in South America —
Peoples who for the past four and a half centuries have occupied the northern highlands of Chile and Argentina.
The Andean region is very wide and encompasses peoples of Ecuador, including those of the humid coast—many of whose contacts were as frequently with maritime peoples, to both north and south, as with the highland peoples.
Most of the populations and civilizations of Bolivia and Peru are Andean in a central, nuclear way; included also are kingdoms of the irrigated desert coast.
The Andes Mountains extend from Venezuela to the southern tip of the continent but it is conventional to call ‘Andean’ only the people who were once part of Tawantinsuyu, the Inca Empire in the Central Andes, or those influenced by it. Britannica notes
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