Students march for education

Press, 16 July 1987, Page 9

Students march for education

University students have organised a March for Education tomorrow, to show their concern that good-quality tertiary education should be available for everybody, said the president of the University of Canterbury Students’ Association, Mr Peter Fenton. “Students’ concern is not about more money for rich kids, but about a good tertiary education for all kids,” he said at a lunchtime meeting yesterday. Mr Fenton expects students to march tomorrow to show the Government that quality should be the primary focus of education policies. “No-one is asking what higher education should do; the politicians are asking only what it will cost,”

The policies released by the leading political parties comprehensively failed to address this question, Mr Fenton said. Labour was creating a situation where “user pays” and limitation of entry would have to be introduced to combat under-funding National, on the sur-. face, seemed to be saying that more education would be available. However, the reality was that a market-driven education system would be an administrative disaster. The march will begin at the Arts Centre at 6.45 p.m. and arrive at Cathedral Square at 7.15 p.m. The Students’ Association had been in touch with other education groups about the march, and been well supported, NuPFenton said.