student strike

Hi everybody, welcome back to classes! I expect you enjoyed this time to rest and get ready for the last rush before graduating, because I did! As you all know, my post today is about the student strike we lived in the last few weeks. There are different issues and opinions about this subject; I will express what I personally feel about it!

The actual problem we live is that Jean Charest's government wants to increase tuition fees for university in the way that we should pay $325 more per term, for 5 years... This totalizes an additional $1625 to pay to go to university. It involves some problems for many students, because much of them can't afford paying that additional amount.

We got a problem here: many students who live on loans and scholarships won't be able to pay for their education! "We will adjust the amounts of loans and scholarships for the poorest students to be able to pay", they said... But they said that a long time ago and there are still inequalities. Some of them don't get enough help and it's not a new reality. The other students who don't get financial help should work more to earn at least a total salary of $10,000 (in average) per year to afford the tuition fees increasing.

I personally have some difficulties to manage to make ends meet... I know what it's like to eat cheap food or to wait until the next pay to buy something I really need... When you live this situation, you sometimes feel stressed and I totally dislike it, though I'm partly victim of it. I can easily imagine that other students like me feel the same and are ashamed of the lack of reaction from our government. The government is an institution that exists for the people, the people should not live for the government. I can't figure out why there is no changes in the way money is injected and used in our universities. There are CLEARLY abusive uses of that money, I mean OUR money! It is essential to pay expensives tuition fees to get great teachers, advanced research materials or labs, to developp expertise... but we shouldn'd pay for the vacations of the universities' directors! Many initiatives must be put in place to correct the problem, and I know it's not gonna be easy, but we got to fight for our rights!

I would like to add that going on a strike is effective, but only if you do it entirely without losing heart at the wrong moment. This is partly what happened here in Rimouski, and I find it deplorable... I also think that stopping all classes until we get a deal from the governement is a great idea, even if it means sacrifying our summer jobs or a couple additional months on the class benches...

I expect my post don't target anybody in the class (except for me!)   :)
Have a nice day dear companions!