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Monica Bodden reporting
Over one hundred UB students marched off the University of Belize Belmopan Campus this morning and made their way through the streets of Belmopan and in front of the National Assembly.

They all held posters and chanted their dissatisfaction in the subsidy cut that has been imposed on new students.

Hope Amadi - President, UB Student Government
"Today demonstration we do hope that with the change the perception of people towards the subsidy cuts especially the minister for him to understand that the students are not happy with the cuts that has been imposed on the new students that are coming in. This issue started far away from 2006. In 2006 we had about 32% poverty rate and during that period the minister said that the poverty rate is too much for us to ask more from the students. It doesn't make any sense for we to ask more from the students. Today we are at about 44% poverty rate and if you said no in 2006 when the poverty rate was 30% plus why would you not imposed it when the poverty rate 40% plus, it doesn't make any sense. We are asking the minister to reconsider and allow the students on the subsidy that he has cut put it back for the students so that they can enjoy going to school and have a reason to go to school."

"It does not affect me, I am not paying. The new students who are coming - that is what I am talking about."

A little under one hundred and fifty students took part in this morning's demonstration - a small turn out when compared with the 2,279 students who attend classes at the UB Belmopan campus.

Hope Amadi - President, UB Student Government
"This morning we had about 200 plus students on campus that was moving around with us but when we come out we had about 100 plus today. I am not satisfied with the outcome but I think it's a statements showing that I am not alone because that has been the criticism - they say Hope, you are doing this and nobody is with you. This is to tell them that; no it's not just me. If you doubt me that I am alone I brought that number to show you that I am not alone. If you doubt that number - that it is too small - I promise I can bring more than that. We don't want to go to the point where we bring every student to demonstrate."

Oniesha Flores - UB Student
"As you can see I am a member of the student government at the University of Belize and we all are united in this effort to work on behalf of the students because actually they are the ones who are saying that they don't want this, so we are here to represent them."

Monica Bodden
"Why did you decided to be a part of today's demonstration?"

Azer Augustine - UB Student
"Actually we are just here supporting the cause. Because then we believe that the increase in school fees is unnecessary, it is absurd and it is not right because the government should have consulted with the University students before increasing the fees. We understand that the fees were set from 2006 but it just took effect now. It doesn't affect me personally because I am not a new student, but it will affect the future generation who are yet to come at the University. As well as not just that but we emailed the minister and the minister refuse to respond to our email. WE believe that the minister could have at least respond to the email even if it wasn't in favor of what we intend to hear. That was disrespectful on the minister's behalf we believe."

Monica Bodden
"Can you tell us about the email that you guys went him?"

Azer Augustine - UB Student
"We sent him an email stating that we are planning to take actions if he didn't invite us to lobby. Certain guys like Hope and other individuals who have interest in this movement decided to talk to him but was unsuccessful in that regard and so the email was basically about this movement."

Oniesha Flores - UB Student
"As you can see the kind of economic situations that we are living in - I did my own personal research and as students we must be informed, we must do our research and it was shocking to see the kind of statistics that as it relates to the income of families and tertiary transfer and different stuff like that. Being aware of that, we must stand up as the people. There are a lot of people who cannot afford tertiary education and then this increase we know that the government can afford it because of the way they have been speaking about the increase in GDP and good economic standings that they have mentioned especially in the New Year's message."

Monica Bodden
"UB is one of the largest institution for students in Belize. Are you guys kind of disappointed in this morning's turn out?"

Oniesha Flores - UB Student
"Apart from the turn out we also have signatures of those that support. The signatures are a part of the evidence that students are in support of this cause."

Today's demonstration was considered peaceful, but according to Amadi, the next might not be so passive.

Hope Amadi - President, UB Student Government
"This is the question they ask me before. They ask me if the minister doesn't reply to our letter what are we going to do? I told them that we don't know yet. We would always ask students what they want to do. We went from class to class to ask the students if they would want to demonstrate and they said yes, that is why we are demonstrating today. Although we didn't get the amount of students who said yes to the demonstration didn't come out because most of them are afraid of losing days or their scholarship or their family getting intimidated. After this we are going back to students again what they want. If the students want us to take the street - we take the street. But rest assure, this is peaceful demonstration, I am not promising the next one will be a peaceful demonstration."

And while this demonstration was taking place at the steps of the National Assembly, back at the UB Campus in Belmopan, classes continued as normal.

Selwyn King - Office of Public Information
"Universities all over have had a long traditional whereby the voices of students needs to be express. Universities have served as that space for the leaders of tomorrow."

Monica Bodden
"Will the students who took part in this morning's demonstration be penalized in any sort of way?"

Selwyn King - Office of Public Information
"No, it's just the students who calls in sick and who doesn't attend classes will find a way to catch up. Classes were held as usual - it was business as usual - there was no cancellation on classes."

To demonstrate that the protest is ineffective, UB's Office of Public Information has shared figures which show that In 2012 -Semester 2, there were 3,832 registered students. As of 4pm this evening, there have been 3,926 registered students for the new semester - and still counting.

Hope Amadi is one of those registered students.