Prague - Thousands of Czech students took to the streets on Wednesday in one of the largest school protests in decades, denouncing a proposed reform of public universities they say will turn learning institutions into corporations.
The reform aims to introduce registration fees to bolster financing at state-funded universities, ending a tradition of free education the government said led to poor wages for teachers and lack of money to buy equipment.
It will also introduce university councils authorised to approve school budgets, with members coming from outside the school. A third of them would be nominated by the education minister and could come from the private sector or state administration.
At least 7,000 students marched towards the government building in Prague as the cabinet met on Wednesday, blowing whistles, chanting and carrying banners reading “We are not giving up our academic freedom” and “A brain is not a cash machine”.
“They offer us a university (that is) like a company. Is that what we want?” Stanislav Stech, prorector for development at Prague's Charles University, said in a speech to students at the start of the protest.
Their gathering roughly matched in numbers a student march in November 1989 that sparked the eventual peaceful overthrow of Communism. Over the last decades, only a 2009 protest by high-school students against changes to final exams was bigger.
The students want the government to rework the reforms, which the cabinet is due to pass in March.
Prime Minister Petr Necas said on Wednesday he would continue to negotiate with student and university groups that have objected to the changes.
The government has already backtracked on a plan to introduce tuition fees, proposing school registration fees instead. But students said the new measure is tuition in disguise.
Wednesday's protests were carried out in several Czech cities, part of a “week of unrest” organised by student groups in the central European nation of 10.5 million.
Around 6,000 turned out on Tuesday in the second-largest city, Brno. President Vaclav Klaus, who had been due to give a speech at the Masaryk University there, scrapped the appearance saying the students were not interested in academic debate.
As of the end of 2009 there were more than 389,000 university students in the country, with the overwhelming majority attending the country's 26 public universities.
The centre-right government has been on an austerity and reform drive since taking office in mid-2010, winning praise from investors and credit rating agencies. The austerity measures, however, have damaged the standing of the three parties in the government coalition, polls show. - Reuters