Collegians, civic groups rally for tuition cuts

By Kim Rahn, Park Sung-hee

Thousands of college students, parents and civic group members gathered to stage a candlelit protest in central Seoul Friday evening to call for the government to cut university tuition.

Politicians from opposition parties also joined the protest, which coincided with the historic June 10 pro-democracy movement.

“I came here to demand the Lee Myung-bak administration carry out its campaign pledge to halve college tuition,” said Kim Jin-ah, a student from Dongduk Women’s University, holding a candle and chanting a slogan, “Halve the tuition,” along with other protesters.

Many students in the rally also criticized the government for its lack of effort in coping with the issue.

“I think the Lee government is less democratic than its predecessor when dealing with a key agenda item,” Gweon So-ra, a Korea University student, said.

The rally was organized by the National Tuition Network in collaboration with the Korean University Students’ Association. They claimed that expensive tuition puts students and their families under serious financial pressure.

“There are more than 3.3 million collegians in Korea, and the number of people affected by high tuition when their families are taken into consideration reaches 13 million. This is why tuition has become a national issue,” a member of the association said.

“About 70 days are left before we pay our next semester’s fees. When the 70 days are up, we hope to have achieved our goal of lowering them to 50 percent of the current ones,” he said.

Police initially planned to ban any collective protest, but later allowed people to gather in the square.

They estimated that 5,000 protestors joined the protest, whereas rally organizers claimed over 20,000 flocked to Cheonggye Plaza in downtown Seoul.

Politicians in rally

Politicians also expressed their support for the demonstration, with the heads of opposition parties participating. They included Sohn Hak-kyu of the main opposition Democratic Party, Lee Jung-hee of the Democratic Labor Party (DLP), Cho Seung-soo of the New Progressive Party (NPP) and Rhyu Si-min of the People’s Participation Party.

They defined the candlelit protest as an anti-government struggle that extended the spirit of the June 10 democratization movement in 1987.

Sohn said, “Cutting tuition by half is not just about the amount of money but a struggle to preserve people’s general rights. We can’t let students quit studying to stage street rallies.”

DLP lawmaker Kwon Young-ghil and NPP members Roh Hoe-chan and Sim Sang-jung held one-man rallies in relay at the Cheonggye Plaza in the afternoon.

The protest was held despite a ban by the police, who pledged to take stern action against any illegal acts such as blocking roads.

Earlier in the morning, Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik said, “It is desirable for civic groups and collegians to express various opinions on the tuition issue, but doing so through such collective action doesn’t help solve the problem rationally.”

He said the issue is not about reducing people’s financial burden. “We have to comprehensively consider the nation’s high ratio of students going to colleges, the restructuring of poorly managed universities, and the government’s finances.”

Kim told education ministry officials to make efforts to develop a comprehensive solution by collecting opinions from students, experts and educational organizations.

In the meantime, plans to hold class boycotts were cancelled at several universities as the number of students participating in ballots for these didn’t meet the required quota.

Of the four schools in Seoul which held a vote, only Sookmyung Women’s University passed the motion, while Korea, Ewha Womans and Sogang universities failed to get the required number of participants. Not many students took part in the ballot as exams are nearing and the day of the planned boycott was Friday when many students don’t have classes, according to student councils.

Students of the schools took part in individual demonstrations after classes.