Education is a central issue in Canada today. With many highly respectable colleges and universities spread across the country one might assume our population had awesome access to the post-secondary education that should make the difference between getting by and living well. The problem though, is that with tuition going up at a faster rate than wages, equal access isn’t actually the case.
Not to mention, once post-secondary education is completed, the debt mounted up paying for it means that a lot of students spend more time just getting by than they intended. This fact is only made more poignant by the increasing difficulty for college and university graduates to find jobs.
So how are Canadian students reacting to this combination of bleak facts? They’re telling the Government that “Education is a Right” and they’re sick of being buried in absurd amounts of debt just to get their undergraduate degree.
The Canadian Student Federation organized and campaigned for February 1, 2012 to be a Student Day of Action. Students across the country took up the call to action. They rallied and marched, baring signs, chants and facts to let their local government representatives know how they felt.
On a local scale, Ontario students also note that tuition here is the highest in Canada.
In Peterborough around 200 students gathered in front of City Hall and marched down George Street, while chanting and cheering, all the way to Jeff Leal’s constituency office. He was presented with an “All Out Feb 1st” tee shirt and 24 cupcakes decorated to represent the percentage of students receiving the 30% tuition rebate relative to those who would be feeling short for tuition next year (Guess which percentage is higher? That’s right, there’s more students not receiving that rebate than those who do).
More importantly than the pleasantries though, he was also given a document outlining what exactly we want to happen with our tuition and fees and explaining that we want the price lowered for all students, not just some.
Remaining calm and polite Leal spoke to the 30% tuition rebate, stressing that he supported making education more accessible for all and would take the concerns raised to him to his cohorts. He clearly recognized that while the Government is actively making things better for some, more needs to be done for all.
The Trent group was also reminded to watch for emails and advertisements regarding a forum which will take place to discuss next steps.
