Argentine students occupy schools to protest education reform

Forty-one high schools have been occupied and some students have been sleeping over at their schools since late September in response to the government’s plan.

The students demand that the administration of Mayor Mauricio Macri and other officials call a meeting to discuss the planned reform in the presence of students.

The new program reduces the number of technical subjects and introduces more credit hours into language, mathematics, and English courses.

“There must be consent from the entire education community. This cannot be decided only by the government but by students and teachers also, so that we can decide how changes are going to be,” one of the students told a Press TV correspondent in the city.

Ruling out dialogue with protestors, Education Minister Esteban Bullrich said the occupations are “fueled” by “political movements” that affect almost 28,000 students.

“The reform that the mayor is carrying out is not precisely what we want because it does not improve educational quality,” the 16-year-old student added.

Students say they will not stop protesting and that they will stage a demonstration by the weekend to urge the authorities to meet their demands.