OTTAWA - Students are calling on the Liberal Party of Québec to reconsider a resolution to implement tuition fees for CEGEP students, adopted at a meeting this past weekend.

"Balancing the budget on the back of students is extremely short-sighted," said Katherine Giroux-Bougard, National Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students. "At a time when seventy percent of new jobs require at least two years of post-secondary education, the Liberal Party of Quebec should be looking to increase enrolment, not reduce it."

Since being created in 1967 students have never been charged tuition fees at the institutions that comprise the CÉGEP system, making it the most accessible system of post-secondary education in Canada and giving Québec the highest proportion of the population enrolled in a post-secondary program of any province.

"In these tough times we should be looking at how to remain a leader in affordable education," said Christopher Monette, Executive-Secretary of the Dawson Student Union. "We should be striving to get more students into school, not competing in a race to the bottom."

CÉGEPS are a combination of the equivalent of the final year of high school - offered in grade 12 in other provinces - and first year of university, and technical programs like those offered by community colleges. A CÉGEP degree is necessary to enter university in Québec.

Founded in 1981, the Canadian Federation of Students is Canada's largest student organisation, uniting more that one-half million students in all ten provinces.

The Dawson Student Union represents the more than 7,500 full time students studying at Dawson College.