Petition Tag - tertiary

Currently, students from polytechnics and universities pay twice as much in bus fares compared to their peers in junior colleges (JCs) and Institutes of Technical Education (ITE), who are classified as post-secondary-level.

Polytechnic students, who in all technicalities are doing their post secondary studies, are considered tertiary education students. We end up paying adult fare! Our counterparts in junior colleges get to enjoy the subsidies while we are denied the subsidies.

"With the comparison of MRT concession pass between JCs and Polytechnics, JC student pay about $25 while Polytechnic student pay about $45 per month for the same service." Quoted from Edison Lim's Speech, titled : Student Rate For All Polytechnic Students.

Even as a soon to be polytechnic student, he/she would too have started paying adult fares even before entering a polytechnic. He/she is no longer given student subsidies, even though their age is clearly below that of an adult.

What is most absurd is that, when queried by MP for Nee Soon GRC about student concessions on trains and public buses, the Transport Minister Mr. Lui Tuck Yew, response was that it would cost transport operators $28 million more per year.

Can’t the government fork out the $28 million dollar per year, to provide subsidies for polytechnic students who are doing post-secondary studies? Isn’t the job of the government to provide for the welfare of its people? And would a $28 million pay cut from SMRT’s $895.1 million, or SBS’s $720 Million, affect them? I think not.

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The Federal Government decided recently to abolish the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) in order to fund its flood reconstruction package. Following deals with the Greens and Mr Wilkie, the Government performed a half-backflip by restoring $50 million in funding and transferring some as yet unspecified functions of the ALTC to the Department of Education.

This is a solution that satisfies no one. The ALTC plays an extremely valuable role in improving the quality of the learning and teaching experience for one million students and academics in Australian universities. For the sake of “saving” a few million dollars each year, all this work and all the accumulated expertise and corporate knowledge will be lost. Meanwhile the Department of Education is clearly under-resourced and not experienced enough to perform the ALTC’s functions.

The decision to restore the ALTC would not be a difficult one to make. But the window of opportunity is closing, as the 2011/12 Federal Budget approaches. From then on, it will be much more difficult to save the ALTC – it is much easier to ensure that a pot is not broken, than to try to put its shattered pieces back together.

That is why the Government, and Minister Evans in particular, need to be made to understand just how important this issue is to the university sector. Minister Evans has to listen and stand up for the key constituency he is meant to represent.

PLEASE NOTE: Please put the name of tertiary institution you work for (if applicable) under the "street address" field.

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South African tertiary institutions are being crippled by disruptive and destructive strikes spear headed by academically under achieving students occupying high posts in our SRC's.

These people stay for years in these institutions so they can enjoy many benefits including free fees, etc.

Why are people consistently failing on the one thing that got them in the institution being allowed to lead fellow students ?

In high schools we see bright kids excelling in their studies and sports but also head their Learners Representative Councils, what happens to this aspiring leaders when they arrive in institutions of Higher Learning ?

Lets call on the Department of Education to pass Legislation that will force tertiary institutions to set out clear and sensible criteria for students' eligibility in occupying seats in the SRC's.

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