Dozens of students were arrested in the capital and protest leaders said half a million students occupied hundreds of schools all over Chile calling for free bus fare, free college entrance exams, more teachers and improved school buildings.

"We are protesting on behalf of our school. The bathrooms are disgusting, you can't even take a shower in the locker room, and they don't do anything about it," said Bernardo Ferrada, 15, his nose and eyes burning from tear gas.

Ferrada said he and 25 other students from the Arturo Prats high school in the middle-class neighborhood of Puente Alto joined a march headed to the national palace before police sprayed them with tear gas from armored vehicles.

Officials said more than 700 people were arrested during Tuesday's protests across Chile, and some nine police and five civilians were hurt in the capital Santiago.

Protests began two weeks ago when students took over a few schools in the capital -- sleeping overnight in classrooms and eating food brought in by sympathetic parents.

The movement spread all over the country and has turned into the biggest street protest faced by new President Michelle Bachelet. Local media said Chile hadn't seen student protests on this scale since the early 1970s when Socialist President Salvador Allende was in office.

Bachelet is highly popular and her center-left coalition has been in power for 16 years in Chile, one of Latin America's wealthiest countries. But students say schools should be seeing more government funding at a time when profit from high-priced copper, Chile's main export, has handed the government billions of dollars in budget surpluses.

Copper sky high and education in the gutter," read a banner at one school.

MINISTER MEETS STUDENTS

Bachelet initially said her government would not negotiate with students who had occupied schools, but on Tuesday Education Minister Martin Zilic met with student leaders and said he was optimistic of a resolution.

"I want to ask that we don't make a war of this," Zilic told reporters after the meeting. "Lets make this an opportunity to take the big step that Chile needs."

Students and parents criticized what they said was heavy-handed police reaction to peaceful marches.

After local television showed scenes of police beating protesters and journalists, government and police said they would investigate allegations of excessive use of force.

Santiago's main avenue was closed all afternoon and into the evening as protesters regrouped after repeated bouts of tear gas and water cannons. Bus service was interrupted in some areas and some subway stations were closed.

Protesters said they want the $40 college entrance exam fee and 20 cent student bus fair both eliminated.

While protesters marched in the capital, students in Valparaiso, Concepcion and other cities held demonstrations and college students stayed away from classes in sympathy.

Students at elite private schools -- including the school Bachelet's youngest daughter attends -- went to school but held solidarity events on Tuesday instead of classes.

In recent decades, Chile has expanded school coverage to most of the population, but students say quality has lagged.

"We have not improved the quality of education as we wanted. The big new challenge for us is closing the quality gap," Deputy Education Minister Pilar Romanguera acknowledged in a recent radio interview.

(Additional reporting by Antonio de la Jara)