Student protest march in Chch streets

Press, 17 April 1980, Page 2

Student protest march in Chch streets

Singing “Hey, Mervyn, leave our schools alone,” to the tune of the Pink Floyd hit song, “The Wall,” 1500 students marched through Christchurch ’streets yesterday to protest against cuts in spending ori education. Students of ijhe University of Canterbury, Lincoln College, and the Christchurch Teachers’ College marched by different routes to join in Cathedral Square where they were addressed by several speakers including the Labour member of Parliament for Westen Hutt (Mr J. J.- Terris). A number of university staff members joined the march and spoke to the crowd, condemning the Government’s latest allocation of funds for universities as being "inadequate.” Scathing comments were made about the injustices and anomalies resulting from both the new bursary system for university students and (he Government’s proposed allowances for training teachers. With roars of approval, the crowd agreed that they demand that the Supplementary Hardship Scheme be scrapped and replaced by one standard bursary set at

a level that enabled all students to afford a university education. The crowd demanded that the Government pay full tuition fees for tertiary students and rejected the proposal of the Minister of Education (Mr Wellington) for teacher-trainee allowances as being “hopelessly inadequate and patently unrealistic.”

After the meeting, two petitions were given to Mr Terris, who agreed to take them to Parliament, The Canterbury petition had about 1000 signatures and the Lincoln College one, 500, Brief sit-ins were staged in High Street, Manchester Street, and Armagh Street Policemen, equipped with shields and helmets, and traffic officers escorted the students during the march.

Similar well attended marches were held at Auckland, Wellington, Hamilton, Palmerston North, and Dunedin yesterday. In one of the biggest, student marches seen in Auckland in recent years, about 2500 students, young and old, scruffy and well dressed, strolled in an orderly manner up Queen Street to Aotea Square.