Today is 17th of November.
Another day that is passing by and we are just congratulating our “friends” on FB because it is their birthday. But what is the difference here?
The difference is that on the 17th of November 1939 nine students and professors were executed without trial and another 1,200 were sent to concentration camps by the Nazi authorities in Prague. This is why in 1941, two years later, November 17 was marked as International Students’ Day in London. Since that day we have been saving the “tradition” by marking the day with demonstrations, protests and indeed speak up about the hottest issues in higher education.
A violent crackdown and a tank that crushed the gates of the university in 1973 in Athens or a mass demonstration in 1989 that helped spark the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia are only examples of “the fight for student rights” in Europe in the past. But even today, when “the fight” had transformed into more “tender actions” we still strive for the student’s voice to be heard and indeed for the right to having an education!
Today in Sofia, we screamed “2/3 higher fees = 2/3 less students; Do only the rich have the right to study?” & “Education is a right, not a privilege!”. Today, the 17th of November 2011, was dedicated to the budget cuts and tuition fees not only in Sofia, but all over Europe.
But what are we, as a European Students’ Forum, doing nowadays? Do we have a role as contributors to change in education and even society? Can we bring change?
I am leaving the answer to you. Yes, to you, the very reader of this article, and not to a minister.
written by Diana Yolova, Higher Education Days Project
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83fOrdGKsq0
