Since I've been in Bogotá, Colombia has been in tumult, thousands spilling out of the lecture halls and campuses of the universities against "Ley 30"; effectively the privatisation of Colombia's public universities. The object of such a move being, as is the nature of privatisation, profit, meaning that quality education takes a back seat to this profit. Furthermore it limits access to education by those who can least afford to pay the criminally high fees, therefore widening and institutionalising the huge class gap that already exists here in Colombia.
Since last week staff from the National University have been on strike against the impending changes and on Thursday last week university students and staff mobilised all around the nation. Here's just one of the huge demonstrations in Bogota against Law 30, one that did not become particularly violent. Unfortunately this has been an exception to the rule, Colombian police are particularly nasty. A medical student in Cali was killed by a mis-aimed (or perhaps well-aimed?) tear gas bomb, around three weeks ago.
No comments:
Post a Comment