Students call for education without borders
The 17th of November marks International Students' Day, a movement which commemorates student demonstrations against the 1939 Nazi storming of the University of Prague, is today calling for education for all.
This year’s call by the international student movement, “Free to learn, free to move”, focuses on the right to education for all; one of Education International’s (EI) core advocacy pillars.
The movement’s statement underlines unity among students from all over the globe “to call for freedom of movement, freedom to study and freedom to live in dignity.” The text goes on to highlight that given the current refugee situation it is necessary to build a strong network to raise awareness and build mutual understanding and solidarity within communities and towards the many human beings “studying and learning in many different ways in different moments of their lives who are fleeing their countries because of conflicts, bad socio-economic situations and because they wish to fulfil their lives seeking for better conditions somewhere else in the world”.
Obessu, which represents national school student unions of Europe, and the European Students' Union have written to all members of the European Parliament and to many European Commission ers to ask them to support and give a concrete institutional response to the call for action ? circulated on social media with the hashtag #free2learn ?#free2move, supported by more than 35 national and international organisations and demanding freedom of movement, right to study and freedom to live in dignity for every human being.
Background During late 1939 the Nazi occupants of the now Czech and Slovak Republics (at that time it was called the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia), in Prague, suppressed a demonstration held by students of the Medical Faculty of Charles University. The demonstration was held to commemorate the creation of an independent Czechoslovak Republic.
This demonstration resulted in a student’s death. His funeral procession consisted of thousands of students, who turned this event to yet another anti-Nazi demonstration. This however resulted in drastic measures being taken by the Nazi's. All of the country’s higher education institutions were closed down; more than 1200 students were sent to concentration camps; and the most hideous crime of all: nine students and professors were executed without trial on the 17th of November, which today marks International Students' Day.
How to contribute
More information on the movement can be found on Facebook here.
On Twitter, the hashtags used are #17NOW, #FreeEducation and #Free2Learn
