Student ‘Union’ or Senseless Time Wasting

“We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar”
T.S. Eliot: The Hollow Men – 1925

Is the student strike coming to an end as in T.S. Eliot’s classic poem, The Hollow Men? After 31 days of protest and demonstrations, some of which actually became violent, the students appear to be ready to settle for an amended governmental agreement hacked out by the Shochat Committee, and approved by the Educational Ministry’s representative Ovadia Yeheskiel. The agreement calls for the sum for NS 45 million to be allocated to Colleges for covering educational costs. This may help students attending private colleges and paying annual tuition fees amounting to three times the sum paid by students attending government universities.
Another agreement earmarks a sum of N.S 20 million to be paid to educational colleges and partially reinstating sums that were cancelled by the government by budget cutting on educational allotments.

Student Strike Did the students win their protest, or was this simply another lesson in futility, as what occurred as a result of previous student protests and strikes. For many students, losing a month of their educational time-frame is something that sums of money may not be able to cover; as if the money might benefit these students directly anyway. State university students need to realize that they pay a very small tuition fee in comparison with students in other countries, especially in North America. A reality that many students fail to realize is that some universities, notably Tel Aviv University, are already in dire financial straits, resulting in some study programs either drastically cut back or eliminated altogether.

The private academic institutions, often the only option available for students who don’t score high enough on their psychometric examinations, are the ones where government funding needs to be available. The tuition costs of these institutions average around N.S. 26,000 per year, considerably more than the N.S. 8,000 paid at the State run universities.

So what did the students gain from all of this hullabaloo? Actually, very little in comparison with what transpired during the protests. Many observers are saying that most of the strikers decided to end their strike when the reality of losing the academic became a stark possibility.

This may be why they are willing to reach this agreement, just to save face as well as salvage the school year. With all of this in mind, one might refer back to T.S. Elliot’s poem especially it’s ending in which the poet wrote: