OTTAWA, Sept. 7 /CNW/ -- OTTAWA, Sept. 7 /CNW Telbec/ - The Governor General, at the request of the Prime Minister Stephen Harper, dissolved Parliament today and announced the much anticipated federal election for fall 2008. Students across Canada are engaged and mobilized behind post-secondary education issues and are taking this opportunity to remind all voting citizens and decision-makers that post-secondary education must be a top priority during this federal election.
"It is imperative that all political parties create a vision for post-secondary education (PSE) as part of their greater vision for Canada's long-term prosperity," said Zach Churchill, National Director for the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA). "Our ability to confront and surmount the challenges of this century - expanding economic growth, the need for sustainable energy resources, and the crisis of climate change - depends on our capacity to build a skilled, flexible, creative talent pool in this country, and the post-secondary education system must be fully mobilized to this end."
Currently however, only 42% of our 20-24 year old population attends some form of post-secondary education; this picture becomes much worse when we look at specific groups in the country. Only 20% of students from low-income families pursue university studies and only 29% pursue a college program; only 20% of Aboriginal students are currently pursuing a form of higher education; and only 17% students who are first generation learners (whose parents didn't go to university or college) are pursuing university, while only 36% are pursuing college.
"These rates are far too low", said Churchill. "They are too low when we compare the fact that 70% of jobs created in Canada in the last 3 years required some form of post-secondary education as a minimum entry requirement. They are too low when compared with the need to replace retiring workers over the next decade. And they are disgracefully low when compared to our national values - that special emphasis we place in the ability of every Canadian to not just dream of a better future, but to realize it."
CASA proposes that our national leaders invest in a comprehensive Post-Secondary Education Access Agenda. This agenda must work to increase the participation rates of Canadians who are currently underrepresented in PSE, in addition to sustaining current students in the system.
"This fall, as students begin to mobilize from coast-to-coast in preparation for the October 14th election, all candidates will be pressured to make post-secondary education a national priority in order to ensure the nation's full and competitive participation in the global economy," concluded Churchill.
For more information please visit the Federal Election page at www.casa.ca.
CASA is a not-for-profit national student organization, offering progressive, common sense education reform solutions.
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