The Chilean Winter

It was a Sunday afternoon when I first arrived in Santiago de Chile. The city seemed dead, I could only see rows of shuttered steel doors since almost every store was closed. It is winter in Santiago now, so it was strange to feel chilly in June since it would be considered our summer in Vietnam. There were only a few people walking briskly on the street with their dogs because it was getting colder since the sun had nearly set. “Is Santiago always like this?” I asked my two new friends who helped to pick me up from the airport. “No,” one replied, “it’s just Sunday. People stay at home with their families.” I smiled and felt the first positive impression about the city since I believe in people who value their time with family.

If my first day was quiet, my first week in Santiago was the opposite. We had orientations, finance workshops, and networking lunches on the rooftop of CETOF — the co-working space of Start-Up Chile. (If you are applying to the program, then please be aware that it will require your time for not only working but also for administrative duties — which you have to do everything yourself.) It turns out that the city itself is not so quiet, either. As a new week began, I saw a lot of people hurrying to catch the metro and plenty of shopkeepers opening their stores during my morning commute. As I walked around, I told myself, this is my home for the next three months; so it was simple happiness to see a lively city. A few days later, I recognized that Bustamante Park was more crowded than ever, especially around a statue of Manuel Rodriguez Erdoiza, a Chilean lawyer and guerrilla leader, considered one of the founders of independent Chile. Police motorcycles were lined up in front of the police station; groups of police cars and ambulances were parked on two sides of the main streets; and hundreds of young people were gathering near Erdoiza’s statue. A passerby told me that there would be a student protest later that day.

I was curious about the gathering, but since I had some work to do I just hurried to CETOF after snapping a few pics of the commotion. (Plus, I was afraid of so much hustle as a newbie to the city.) I shared the photos of what I had seen in the park within our cohort’s WhatsApp group and some Chilean friends told me that it was not the first protest that year. Curious, I began to research. Dubbed the “Chilean Winter” by the international press, the Chilean Education Conflict began in May 2011 but later triggered again in August that year and had inspired students in other countries (for example, Colombia) to try to change their education system, “demanding a new framework for education in the country, including more direct state participation in secondary education and an end to the existence of profit in higher education.” The student-led protest series included massive non-violent marches in many different locations throughout the country. (In May 2016, the authorities used gas and water guns in an attempt to disperse the protestors.) However, Chilean students have been back on the streets since last October because the university reforms “The Nueva Mayoría (New Majority)” promised by the new government, which mainly of centre-left political parties supporting the presidential candidacy of Michelle Bachelet in the 2013 election, have fallen short of the students’ demands.

Considering my country’s own history, especially in the 20th century, there is nothing more painful than blood-and-tears violence. As a peace-lover, I hope that the students and government here can establish an open dialogue when the time is right for compromise and benefit to the greater Chilean society. It is sad to see students boycott classes and instead became protesters with signs reading “No se vende la education” (Education is not for sale), which prompts the question:

Should Education be free?

I can’t deny that a good education leads to a wide range of career choices, it fosters future generations of youth to overcome inequality and to establish long-term sustainability by providing them life-long tools. Through education, we can form our own opinions and views about our life. Education is perhaps one of the most critical ways of growing and the strongest social value creator for the disadvantaged.

My friends from TSF and I had a long conversation over our brown-box lunches but it seems that we could not answer the question to everyone’s satisfaction. It’s reasonable to come to the conclusion that basic education, at least until we turn 18, should be free (more or less with little contribution) because people pay taxes for social welfare with the hope of broader access to quality education. Many agreed that tuition fees for higher education are significant, partly because it creates a commitment between students and their schools, the foundation for the whole education system. Moreover, paid education supposedly promises better pay for teachers, whose jobs are usually considered underpaid compared to other professions.

Our program is an equity-free pre-accelerator because the end goal of the program is to position Chile as the innovation and entrepreneurship hub of Latin America, a “Chilecon Valley,” if you will. However, the grant requires a detailed financial plan, a committed work schedule, and S.M.A.R.T goals while maintaining social connections with other teams coming from a variety of countries. For me, the motivation for being part of a brand new, groundbreaking entrepreneurial experience is to be part of the diverse TSF community in order to share inspiration as well as productive experiences to get our ideas off the ground. I’ve found many good friends here who are willing to help if I reach out to them regardless of their busy schedules (and without pay). They are willing to make time, even late at night or on weekends to sit down and listen to each other — for that, my educational experience here, no matter the final outcome, has been fruitful.

What do you think? Should education be free? What kind of education do you think is the most valuable?

I invite you to share your thoughts and comments below.

This post is dedicated to my Mom since her birthday was last week. I am forever thankful to my Mom, who taught me to read at a young age and that was the best part of childhood since reading is foundation of life-long learning. She is the perfect equity-free education example, however, it seems never easy to be the daughter of a tiger mom. :)