Student strike

[Circ]

There is currently a province-wide unlimited student strike here in Quebec.

What happened was that the government cut 103 millions dollars last year in bursaries and raised the minimum amount of loan you needed before you could get a bursary. Additionnally, this broke a deal with the federal government so that an additionnal 70 million$ in scholarship won't reach the students of Quebec.

This reforms affect the poorest students, those who need scholarships the most. The government has steadily ignored the protests during the last year, so the 3 main associations have launched a call to general strike.

There are currently 70 000 students on strike whose major demands are:

-That the government [b]retroactively[/b] cancel the bursaries reform
-That the government takes back any attempt toward institutional independance in the collegial network (hard to explain if you're not from Quebec. Currently, diplomas from all cegeps of quebec are equivalent, it would make them inequal, basically)

Ever been in a student strike? What do you think of student strikes?

links:

[url]http://thelink.concordia.ca/article.pl?sid=05/03/09/2313229[/url]
[url]http://action.web.ca/home/cfs/en_alerts.shtml?x=73366&AA_EX_Session=324831bc33567d9a04c5f75e965af539[/url]
[url]http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=004904c5-928c-4a1d-a308-6d16f832dfd1[/url]
[url]http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=004904c5-928c-4a1d-a308-6d16f832dfd1&page=2[/url]

[DeathBug]

I don't know the situation in Quebec, so I won't comment on it, but I think the idea of a student strike is inherantly flawed.

As my father often reminds me: "Teachers get paid whether you show up or not." The students have no bargaining power; they need the schools more than the schools need them.

[Harry]

[QUOTE=DeathBug]I don't know the situation in Quebec, so I won't comment on it, but I think the idea of a student strike is inherantly flawed.

As my father often reminds me: "Teachers get paid whether you show up or not." The students have no bargaining power; they need the schools more than the schools need them.[/QUOTE]
That might be true for public school, but universities do actually need to listen to the students since they're the ones paying.

[Circ]

I must add that almost all education level here in Quebec are (mostly) public (secondary, collegial (technical diplomas and pre-U studies), universities)

The true potential of a general reside in:

[list=1]
[*]The government will have to spend majopr sums (as pointed out) to pay teachers
[*]if students fail because they didn't go to class (say, because there weren't enough school days for the session to be legally completed), all these students are "overboard" in the system (potentially over 80 000 students, for 170 000 post-secondary students in Quebec!)
[*]that's pressure on a system that already lack ressources, teachers, places...
[*]Moreover, if (say) 30 000 college students don't pass the session, that's 30 000 secodary students that can't go to CEGEP because the places are taken
[*]Tat's also potentially 70 000 students that don't complete their education to enter work: economic shortage of workers in several areas.
[/list]

Remember that people in Quebec general study and work in Quebec, unlike in the U.S. where you frequently study in a different state. The whole province is almost autarcic in the way education, government and workforce are related.

There have been 7 Quebec-wide general unlimited strike in Quebec's history, and they were all successful. We are asking that the government (who said education would be a "top priority"!) actually put on his pants and not destroy our free (yeah, right!) and universal educational system. I don't believe that's too much.

I hope I made sensible arguments here. I tend to have trouble organizing my though :animestun