Zongongians have rejected the third referendum question, “should tertiary education become compulsory?” by 54% to 46%. This is a significantly narrower margin than expected; and many “no” voters have suggested online that while they do not support making it compulsory, they would support further measures to encourage greater voluntary uptake.
The proposal would have made some form of post-secondary education compulsory for all Zongongians, whether that be university or focused vocational courses. These courses would have taken a minimum of two years to complete, meaning the vast majority of Zongongians would remain in full-time education until the age of 20+. The proposal also mentioned knock-on policy changes, which would include further restrictions on hours under 20s could work and the raising of the military recruitment age until 20. It also made explicit allowance for people with intellectual disabilities, by proposing the creation of additional courses aimed at this demographic.
Despite the result of the referendum, coalition plans already in place are likely to continue to make all existing voluntary tertiary education courses free at the point of access. This measure is explicitly supported by the Tomorrow Party, whose proposal this was, as well as both the Communists and Green Ecology. The other two coalition partners, Republic Now! and Women Rising, have neither explicitly come out in favour or against the measure, but it is expected that they would either vote in favour or abstain if the measure came to parliament.
Tomorrow Party leader Emma Storstrand posted a video online stating: “we will never stop fighting for the intellectual empowerment of Zongongians. If we can’t convince the populace to make getting a full education compulsory, we will simply have to convince each and every secondary student to make the correct choice for themselves.”
