23 July 2002
Tertiary Education the Common Ingredient
The Aotearoa Tertiary Students' Association (ATSA) is disappointed that the one issue that has been missing from the
election debate is tertiary education. "Over the last few weeks political candidates have been pushing law and order,
health, and GE," said Julie Pettett, President of ATSA. "Yet if a country wants to reduce crime, improve its health, and
protect the environment, the common ingredient is better education."
"Politicians need to get it into their heads that education is a big part of the solution to all our social problems,"
said Pettett. "Until this happens, tertiary education is going to be left to rot."
"No political candidate or party will tell us that we need to dumb down our society, or that education is not
important, and yet they have all avoided tertiary education as a major platform," said Pettett. "The two main parties,
National and Labour, have offered little of real substance and barely touched on the real problems tertiary education is
facing."
"Tertiary education is an issue that affects us all. ATSA hopes that the people of New Zealand will teach our
politicians a lesson at the polls this weekend and vote education."
ENDS