Three hundred demonstrators against high study costs
About three hundred students and pupils walked through The Hague last Saturday to protest against the rising study costs. "Are we all looking forward to it?"
Picture: Sabina van Gils
It's a cold Saturday afternoon. Two DJs are playing hard music on stage while more and more demonstrators gather on the Lange Voorhout in The Hague. They have banners and protest signs. Van Engelshoven, they have discovered, rhymes with 'robbing'.
All participants receive a kind of runner paper that they can stick on their back. Instead of a shirt number, they write their student debt on it. The amounts vary from a few thousand euros to as much as 67 thousand euros.
They want to protest against high study costs - and high debts - today. “Students are hit hard,” says Carline van Breugel, chair of the National Student Union. “A debt of around 26 euros is simply not normal. The loan system is not only anti-social, it is ridiculous. ”
No privilege
The LSVb is organizing the demonstration with the SP young people from ROOD, the FNV Jong trade union, the students of the LAKS and the MBO students from JOB. After a word of welcome (“Are we all looking forward to it?”) And a few speeches, the demonstrators take a tour of The Hague. They chant slogans like 'Education is a right, not a privilege' and 'What time is it? Solidari time '. A few drummers lead the way.
There is a lot of police out there. They accompany the procession on horses, in vans and on foot. They had expected a higher turnout, one of the officers said. But the political youth of ChristenUnie and CDA are absent because of conferences. “They prefer to sit in a room,” thinks RED chair Lisa de Leeuw.
They chant slogans like 'Education is a right, not a privilege' and 'What time is it? Solidari time '
The vast majority of those present are from her party. Even though these SPs shout their slogans so loudly, they would rather not talk to the press. Anyone who asks for something will forward it to De Leeuw. "It's not all that rigid," De Leeuw tries to explain, "but we agreed on that."
Other protesters belong to the LSVb or one of the other organizations. Only a few young people came who are not members of anything and who traveled to The Hague purely for the good cause.
Parents
For example, there is a second-year history student (“I only read about it yesterday”) who herself has no student debt at all. “I have been spoiled by my parents, they support me. And I still live at home. ” She demonstrates for students who are less fortunate.
Such as a fourth-year student of Asian studies, who is walking with 50 euros on her back. She has to pay for her entire study herself, she says, because her parents do not have enough money. She does have a side job, but the costs of books and housing are still quite high. "You know what you're getting into when you go to college," she says, "but I do feel the pressure."
You know what you're getting into when you go to college, but I do feel the pressure
SP Member of Parliament Frank Futselaar is also there, with a debt of nine thousand euros stuck to his coat. When the procession has arrived at the Lange Voorhout again, he receives a petition from two 20-year-old nursing students, Britte Veltman and Amelia Zuidema. It has been signed more than 124 thousand times. “An astonishing number,” says Futselaar. The petition calls for compensation for students who did not receive a basic grant, but also did not receive a halving of their tuition fees in the first year. They just fall between two stools.
bad luck
For their bad luck, these students will receive a study voucher worth two thousand euros five to ten years after graduation (as agreed when the basic grant was abolished), but Veltman and Zuidema say that this is of no use to Veltman and Zuidema. “In nursing it is very normal to retrain. The employer pays for that. What should we do with that voucher? ”
They hope that the cabinet will bring these vouchers forward, so that students can use the money for their master's degree. The LSVb is committed to this and they think it is a good idea.
It seems the highest achievable, because Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven again emphasized in front of the NOS camera on Friday that the loan system will not disappear for the time being, even though government parties CDA and ChristenUnie would like to. “Everyone can continue to dream about the distant future,” she said in response to recent statements by ChristenUnie leader Segers. "We have made a very clear agreement in the coalition agreement and Mr Segers has also signed up for it."
But the protesters are taking heart. “Ingrid, you are not here today, but we are not leaving”, LSVb member Van Breugel shouts. And also: "Our fault is your fault!" The audience cheers and claps.
