Students back on the streets demand free education

fuad lawal

June 26, 2015 4:16 PM

Over two thousand Burundi students protesting the shutdown of Universities in the country are engaging the police.

Thousands of students in Chile are back on the streets to demand free education and other reforms in the university system.

President Michelle Bachelet had in May announced a major legislation seeking to make university free for hundreds of thousands of Chileans, but his promises seems to have fallen short and students want more.

Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Santiago asking for more power for students and professors in formulating policies on running universities as well as federal ownership of all primary schools.

Reports say the students have in recent protests, demanded the scrapping of the nation's dictatorship-era constitution as well as an end to a law which privatizes marine resources.

READ: Students fight police, storm US embassy over universities closure

The president of the University of Chile's powerful student union, Valentina Saavedra, said a change in the government set-up itself is what is wanted.

"It seems to me that new reforms need to change the structure of the government itself," Saavedra was quoted as saying.

"We have been fighting as students, workers, teachers, because traditional politics aren't working."

Left-leaning president Bachelet had had many promises after the 2011 protests that permanently dented the popularity of conservative predecessor Sebastian Pinera.

Some of the students who led the famous protests, like Camila Vallejo, have become lawmakers in the coalition government and the new leadership of the student body are more radical.

Many Chileans support the student movement, meaning their protests would be a major issue for Bachelet.

fuad lawal