Results of Students’ Protests
image by bere (license: CC-BY)
You might remember that I have reported about the students’ protests in Austria which already began in Germany some weeks later. Students had conquered lecture halls of their university and stayed there to fight for more democracy and a better situation.
Not even compensating inflation
I did not know if I should laugh or resignate when I saw the outcome of the plans to change everything. The government had decided to raise support for non-wealthy students by 2%. Wow, 2%! That’s a fucking lot considering that the normal inflation (except these two years of recession) is about 3%. This means that the costs for different products you buy (the Federal Statistical Office has a virtual shopping cart with all kind of products) increases by 3% per year, but you get 2% more financial help in a time span of several years.
Moreover, we hear the same postulations as every year: “There need to be more scholarships”. This is true, but then create them and do not talk about it all day long! Why are there political scholarships which require you to be member of a specific party, mainly CDU or SPD? There are not many youths who want to be member of CDU or SPD, because their structure is neither flexible nor modern anymore and so these scholarships are basically worthless for most students.
“You are worthless!”
The Financial Ministers of several Länder now carry the situation to extremes. They declined the raise, because it was too expensive. I wonder if they know that we will be paying retirement pensions in future.
Germany does not have anything except knowledge, thus they are spitting in their own bowl by not improving support for students. On the one hand they adapt Bachelor’s and Master’s degree which transform university into a full-time job and education industry instead of free learning and then they want to cancel help for students who cannot pay for their studies. That’s exactly the right way! Go on like this and you will destroy Germany’s good position.
There’s two possibilities: Either students are enabled to work while doing studies or they are supported by the state. The financial aid is not even a full payment, but a mixture of payment and credit, meaning that you have to return 50% of what you got. Comparing this with the offered increase of 2%, the state would have to finance only 1%. I do not mind if they pay 2% more or not, because it’s baiscally 10€ per student, but I do mind the signal they are giving to younger generation.
We are paying your wages, we are paying the wages of company owners, because we are the ones inventing new stuff. We are holding Germany’s title as research country high and you are kicking our asses.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
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