Students complain about the poor situation and feel that the government is not listening to them. But it is necessary to think and address the issue holistically.
I agree that student work should be abolished. There are far too many unemployed people who would be happy to do any kind of work but have no job opportunities because companies prefer to employ students.
I disagree with the argument that students neglect their studies because they work, because IF YOU REALLY WANT TO STUDY, YOU WILL GET THERE, WHETHER YOU WORK OR NOT (I am writing from my own experience). There are many students who go to university to have a status, but do not study because they have a status (I am writing from my own experience). Why do they "occupy" the seats in the lecture theatres of those potential students who would be happy and diligent to study? Students' studies should also be monitored and appropriate action taken when they fail to fulfil their study obligations. A typical example of the abuse of student status is a subject who has been enrolled at various faculties for the past six years for the sole purpose of maintaining his status.
I suggest that:
- first of all, abolish all student organisations, as only a few individuals are enriched in this way. With the profits they have made, they could get a few extra beds for students.
- A special department (section, division or sector) should be set up in the civil service (or elsewhere within the state institutions) to manage and operate student affairs, with the same function as the student organisations have had up to now. The work of this service should be subject to ongoing and rigorous monitoring.
- The work of each student should be legally limited to 20 hours per month in each enterprise. Those students who really need the money (because of the really bad social situation of their guardians or parents) will find work in several companies.
- Student work should be defined like any other work: up to a certain amount of earnings, work should be tax-free, everything else should be taxed.
- Student work should be counted as part of working time.
- Students should pay for their meals with student cards, which should also be payment cards. The student card is an identification document which everyone should be obliged to use to identify themselves before using services - the possibility of misuse is reduced.
- Many buildings in the whole country are abandoned, they are not under any procedures (restitution of property), yet nobody uses them. Such buildings should be redeveloped to provide additional beds for students (if only we had all the money that has been taken by individuals in some student organisations).
- The work and achievements of students must be monitored on an ongoing basis (and not just the achievements of the Zois scholars), as this will help us to achieve quality. Those who really want to achieve a certain level of education and actively participate in the labour market in a certain field will work hard and achieve these results. The rest should leave higher education - this will ensure that everyone who REALLY wants to study and is prepared to work (study) for it can do so. If companies can sack employees for incompetence (which is constitutionally unacceptable, because there are no incompetents; everyone is good at something), why not expel students for failing to fulfil their study requirements?
- Above all, this generation of students needs to be told that they must work in companies under the same conditions as all other employees. They must be held accountable for their mistakes and for not following instructions.