Thousands of teachers in Chile have begun a protest against the country's New Public Education Act and demanded the municipalities pay the debts they owe the workers, as hundreds of teachers joined the call to stop work for the next 24 hours.
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The president of the teachers 'union Mario Aguilar said the strike was "an expression of teachers' discontent over a reform that has been very superficial and will not solve the problems of public schools."
"It will change who manages the system, but will continue to administer the same market system," Aguilar said during the march in the capital city of Santiago.
Aguilar said the majority of the communities have joined the strike, and that in Santiago, there were about 35 schools that didn't begin classes.
"There are serious problems of debt, more than 120 municipalities that have debts with teachers and the project of new public education aims to pass it on to teachers, this would originate a historical debt, which is very serious for us," Aguilar said.
Ya nos preparamos para partir la marcha en Santiago por el #ParoNacionalDocente
— Colegio Profesores (@ColegioProfes) August 17, 2017
Con toda la fuerza colegas! #ArribaProfes pic.twitter.com/8WWtXbaTXV
"We are already preparing to leave to Santiago for the National Teachers' Strike. With all the force, colleagues!"
A pesar de las amenazas ahora miles de docentes marchamos en #ParoNacionalDocente Gobierno y clase política debe escuchar al magisterio, pic.twitter.com/9eMaNISp3o
— Mario Aguilar (@AguilarMario) August 17, 2017
Daniel Andrade, a spokesman for the Confederation of Chilean Students, also known as Confech, criticized the government of Michelle Bachelet for "committing to resolve the crisis of public education and not doing it with the organizations involved."
Aguilar said they have had six months of talks with the government, but so far there has been no concrete response to the situation.
He called on Bachelet "to understand that social transformations are done with social movements."
There will also be marches in cities such as Valparaiso, Concepcion, Arica, Copiapo, Antofagasta and La Serena.