The topic of public education in Chile is a hard one for a foreigner to grasp. I´ve heard people say it´s absolutely horrible, but I´ve also heard those defending it, or at least saying, “Hey, it´s not that bad.”

Whatever the case is, I can assure you, yesterday´s Education March as my proof, that there is a lot of dissatisfaction among Chileans when it comes to public education. Thursday, 12 May, I photographed more than 25,000 students and professors marching down Alameda, voicing the need for more funding, scholarships and general improvement.

You see, in Chile, it seems that anyone who can, pays for their children to attend a private school. Therefore, public schools become somewhat synonymous with poor people, where you´ll find the once poor students, teaching the now poor students, all lacking a  good education, making a vicious cycle of ignorance.

From the teachers´ point of view, they´re the age old, “underpaid and overworked,” (and teachers in the US think they have it bad…here, they really are at least underpaid, severely, like some only making $600 a month) and often they have to deal with unruly children, at times violent. From the students´, the facilities are horrendous, they´re lacking in supplies–and not art supplies, but like, textbooks–and their teachers are bad. Many of them realize they´re not getting a proper education.

So what do you do? You march so it would seem; but they´ve been marching for years, and nothing´s really changed. I don´t know the answer, nor as I mentioned, can I truly form my own opinion. I just know that watching 25,000, mainly youth, walking down the capital´s main street, feeling passionate about something, moves me. I love covering marches, I love seeing people who care!