Chile's Sebastián Piñera government is facing hard times. In addition to citizen disapproval rates currently standing at 56%, he now has to contend with massive student protests of a scale not seen in Chile since the return of democracy in 1990. The latest large-scale protest brought together hundreds of thousands of people across the country, demanding better public education and social justice in one of the countries with, according to the Gini index, the highest inequality levels.

The clearest reflection of this inequality in Chile can be seen in education. As a result of a series of neoliberal reforms, Chile has developed one of the world's most segregated education systems, with insufficient state participation. Public expenditure on education accounts for 4% of the gross domestic product, compared with 7% in developed countries. This has translated into a growing privatisation trend in education since the 1980s.

Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship prioritised freedom of education over the right to education, opening up education to the market, as though it were a product to buy and sell. The Concertación, a social democratic coalition that governed from 1990 to 2010, administered this model, introducing certain reforms that focused on access but neglected quality and equality. Today, only 10% of Chilean students access schools that will provide them with real opportunities for the future.

Most students wander between precarious public schools and deficient subsidised or voucher schools. The university system was also reformed in the 1980s, allowing a proliferation of private universities (very few of which are decent) which, despite being classified as non-profit organisations, nevertheless yield juicy returns for their owners thanks to a series of subterfuges. The minister of education himself, Joaquín Lavín, owned a university before taking office.

By contrast, public universities have become increasingly weak and today are barely able to finance their most basic operations. For instance, the University of Chile, the country's main university and one of the best in Latin America, only receives 14% of its budget from the state. It has to be financed with degree fees, passing on the financial burden to its students. In fact, families finance 73% of higher education in Chile, a figure that greatly exceeds the average (16%) for OECD countries. This is one of the main demands of the students who are now taking to the streets. They carry enormous debts, which could reach $100,000 (£62,000) within 20 years.

The current education system is founded upon neoliberalism, privatisation, a climate of over-expectation and promises of social mobility. However, Chilean society is stratified, with a small group holding all the privileges. There is no real room for meritocracy or equal opportunities. For instance, the unemployment rate among young people (15.2%) is more than double the national average. Most young people are building up frustration by seeing how their hopes for the future clash with the sad reality.

The first signs of this malaise appeared in 2006, when thousands of secondary school students took to the streets in what became known as the "penguins' revolution". They managed to overturn the LOCE, the organic law on education established by Pinochet's dictatorship, which was then replaced by the Ley General de Educación (LGE) in an agreement signed by all political parties. However, the law failed to satisfy both students and teachers because, once again, no real reform of the public education system had been undertaken.

Students and teachers understand that strengthening public education will greatly contribute to building a fairer society and a better democracy. The neoliberal reforms that promoted competition and privatisation have failed because they have been unable to bridge the existing social divides and have perpetuated privileges.

Some say that the Chilean education system is not in crisis and resort to figures regarding access to argue their point. However, they say nothing of the inequality or the quality of the education. Luckily, students are mobilising to remind us that a better public education means a better country.