Students Demand in
Protest The Elimination
Of Exams
For almost four weeks
teachers belonging to
the Asociación de
Profesores de Segunda
Enseñanza (APSE) union
abonded the classroom in
a strike action that
ended last week.
Yesterday, students
decided to abandon the
classroom in a
collective action that
is to be continued on
Friday.
The students are
demanding that they be
given more time to
eliminate, at least for
this year, the secondary
school national exams,
as they will not have
sufficient time to
prepare due to the loss
of classroom time
resulting from the
teachers strike.
Students say that they
are the losers, being
forced to take exams
which they are ill
prepared and all due
because the teachers
abandoned the classroom.
A group of students are
making their demands
known to Education
minister, Leonardo
Garnier and are calling
on the collective
student body to walk out
of the classroom on
Friday.
To make their voice
known, yesterday
students took to the
streets of downtown San
José to protest in front
of the Ministerio de
Educación Pública.
Carlos Arias, a student
body spokesperson, said
it is not fair that the
students pay the price
of the teachers strike.
Upset that their voices
were not being fully
heard by Education
officials, the students
took to choking off all
vehicular traffic on
Avenida Segunda, around
the Parque La Merced,
where a number of minor
confrontation between
the students and drivers
ensued.
The Fuerza Pública had
to intervene and members
of the UIP - a special
police unit to handle
riots and crowd control
- had to be called in,
particularly in one case
where a student was
allegedly hit by a
vehicle. The tension
then turned to calm when
the students ended their
protest.
However, according to
the words of Arias, the
students will be back on
the streets on Friday.
Using the television
camera as a call to all
students, Arias said
that they will gather
beginning at 10:00am at
the Parque Central,
although he did not
specify the students
direction and intent
after that.
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