One of the most powerful moments I bore witness to while studying abroad in Chile was a protest for affordable and quality education, one of many that had occurred over the past couple of years. Students and older citizens alike took to the streets with banners proclaiming “No se vende educación”(education is not for sale) and “educación de exelencia y para todos!”(excellent education for all!) The passion emanating from the march was palpable, as was the growing tension from the surrounding police. In a scene out of the 1960’s, I watched as tanks rolled down the street to greet the mounting violence. As my friends and I walked home from class, we witnessed two arrests while sneezing from the tear gas lingering in the air. The streets were wet from the powerful hoses used to quell the protesters.
Viewed as an essential human right, education has been a central issue for not just Chile, but in several parts of Latin America. This week, similar protests ravaged the Dominican Republic following a court ruling that barred children of Haitian descent from attending school. The September 2013 ruling, which lets the government strip citizenship from thousands of people born to migrants who came illegally, overwhelmingly affects descendants of Haitians brought to work on farms. The Dominican Republic grants the right to a primary education to all citizens, but now excludes thousands of children lacking identification documents. Those of Haitian descent, born and raised as Dominicans, have dropped out of school or lost scholarships as a result of the ruling. Others, according to a report released Friday, are forced into underage labor. While the government has asserted that around 13,000 people have been affected by the court ruling, human rights groups have put that number closer to 200,000. Though the ruling has strained relations between the Haitian and the Dominican governments, the individuals affected most are the estimated 48,000 children without documents who continue to be denied the basic right to education.
Sources:
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2013/1001/Thought-you-were-a-citizen-Dominican-Republic-changes-the-rules
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/children-haitian-descent-dominican-republic-barred-school-article-1.1754213
