Chile’s Justice Minister Teodoro Ribera resigned on Monday amid allegations he has ties to a former director of the country’s accreditation committee, or CNA, which improperly authorized some universities to operate.
Thursday’s march was held in solidarity with the former students of the Universidad del Mar, a private institution that was shut down by the government after the extent of its financial irregularities came to light. The university, on the Chilean coast just north of Valparaíso, educates 8,000 students who are now scrambling to find a way to graduate, relocate or get a refund on their pay-as-you-go education before the school closes in December of 2014.
But students say it's not enough because the system is still fails them with poor public schools, expensive private universities, unprepared teachers and unaffordable loans.
Thursday’s education protest organized by the Student Federation of Private Universities (Mesup) ended in violent clashes after police attempted to prevent demonstrators from reaching the Education Ministry.