Students protest in Chile - level 3

15-04-2013 14:00

A march demanding education reforms in Chile has descended into clashes and standoffs between students and police. Weapons of choice were mainly rocks, molotov cocktails and the occasional traffic lights, while, police counteracted with water cannon and tear gas. Amid the street battles in Santiago were plenty of dogs who seemed more content with playing with the water than taking notice of the protests.

This was the first major student march this year which passed off relatively peacefully but ended with violent demonstrations. Demos have been going on for years and education reform has become a key electoral issue ahead of November’s presidential vote.

Money has been made available in the 2013 budget on financing school loans but students say it's not enough. They say there are still too many poor public schools, expensive private unis and unprepared teachers.

Interesting words: descended (changed), clash (violent confrontation), standoff (meeting of two sides with the same strength), molotov cocktail (simple bomb containing petrol), content (happy), demo (demonstration), electoral (connected with elections), uni (university).