Chile's newly-appointed Education Minister Carolina Schmidt said here Tuesday that she is willing to dialogue with leaders of the dissident student movement.

"I have always been a big believer in dialogue, listening, understanding people and finding points of agreement," Schmidt said, a day after becoming the fourth Education Minister to fill the post under President Sebastian Pinera.

"We have to find points of agreement that will allow us to make progress. That's done by talking, dialoguing. And it's done in congress, not by becoming stalled in a situation in which there is no proposal whatsoever," said Schmidt.

However, "that doesn't mean there aren't going to be more protests, there will be, they will continue, they are part of a process," Schmidt admitted.

Schmidt took the job after her predecessor Harald Beyer was indicted by congress for allowing corruption and profiteering at Chile's institutions of higher learning.

Beyer has been banned from public office for five years.

The dissident students are demanding an overhaul of the education system to provide affordable, quality education.

Chile has one of Latin America's highest tuition rates, and private schools get public money through government subsidies.

The student movement first drew worldwide attention in August 2011, with international media referring to the massive protests as the Chilean Winter.

Student leaders have said they plan to revive the two-year-old movement in 2013, as November presidential and legislative elections loom. Endit

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