The War On Our Future
Fighting around the Globe for Education
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This year has seen major protests on three separate continents, opposing the plans of three separate governments, all boiling down to the same single issue: affordable—or rather, increasingly un-affordable—post-secondary education.
While most, if not all, university students in Quebec are well acquainted with our lengthy history of fighting to keep tuition rates low, this past year has proven that our generation’s plea for accessible education extends far beyond the borders of La Belle Province.
Governments both here and overseas are slashing public spending in order to ease themselves out of tough financial situations, and in doing so are forcing students to take the hit—but it has become evident that we aren’t going to take it, and we shouldn’t have to.
A world in which higher education is only an option for the financially privileged most certainly will not be beneficial for anyone. Both students and prospective students can seem to understand this—so why can’t those who are dishing out the budgets?
It’s not because no one has tapped them on the shoulder and pointed out the flaws in their thinking—just look at this past year. First it was England. In a Jan. 29 rally, thousands of students took to the streets in Manchester and Leeds. The mobilization, called “A Future that Works: National Rally for Young People” protested the Tory government’s plans to terminate their Education Maintenance Allowance and raise tuition fees.
Then it was Chile. This summer saw between 70,000 and 80,000 students marching on the streets of Santiago, and an estimated 150,000 on side streets calling for the reformation to the country’s education system. Unfortunately, what started out as peaceful demonstrations ended in the arrests of nearly 900 people and an estimated $2 million in property damage, plus a flurry of tear-gas and street clashes.
It’s sad that this is what wanting an education has come to. But if there is anything to learn from the chaos that broke out in Chile it is that students aren’t taking this issue lightly; we want our education—and we want it bad.
And now, once again, the movement is building here in Montreal. On Sunday, Aug. 21 the Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec and the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec officially kicked off their campaign against rising tuition fees.
The campaign is running under the slogan “$1,625 More Won’t Pass!” in reference to the amount provincial tuition is set to increase over the next five years, as per the Quebec government’s most recent budget.
FEUQ plans to escalate pressure, leading up to a massive student rally slated for downtown Montreal Nov. 10th.
As part of their campaign, the FEUQ has published a 58-page guide that offers an in-depth explanation as to why the $1,625 hike in Quebec’s tuition fees is illogical, unfair and blatantly unacceptable. The guide includes in-depth financial and budgetary analysis as well as a detailed explanation of the benefits of post-secondary education.
This comprehensive guide is great—read it at 1625wontpass.ca—but I don’t think anyone needs 58 pages to understand why rising tuition is not a beneficial solution.
It comes down to this: who, exactly, do the governments across the globe think they are helping by making university an exclusive privilege? Yes, cutting public spending to the education sector might provide some fast cash for a flailing economy, but in the long term, this is petty change and isn’t worth the consequences. This band-aid solution isn’t going to heal any long-term wounds.
Raising an uneducated population to take over from, and ideally mend, the hurting financial sector, is a pretty dumb idea. To learn from the economic and social mistakes of the past in order to move forward, we need an educated population. But if we can’t afford to attend university, how exactly are we supposed to learn to clean up this mess?
It seems that those who have the most incentive to fix our beaten economy and lead our governments are those who are not going to be equipped with the tools to do so.
The number one documented reason listed for students choosing to not pursue their education at a university level is financial. With this reality, students graduating high school are faced with choosing the lesser of two evils; graduating in debt—only to enter a less-than-promising job market—or skipping out on university altogether. This predicament is one that can be avoided, or at the very least minimized.
How? Lets go back a few years to 1999—when the student movement in Quebec won arguably its greatest victory, ever. After mass rallies and demonstrations, students succeeded in pressuring the government to freeze the province’s tuition fees for almost an entire decade. This freeze was responsible for making the average student debt in Quebec an astounding $18,000 less than anywhere else in Canada.
To my knowledge, Quebec’s students are the only students worldwide to have ever spoken out to such a groundbreaking success. Now that we need to get back out there fighting, we have to remember that is possible to incite change. It’s been done before. Let’s use the past as motivation to make it happen again and to show our peers in London and Santiago that the fight for accessible education is not futile.
Mark your calendars for November 10th, and when that day comes—get ready to speak up.
