This
is a public statement from the ABAKADA-Guro Party-List which I had posted as a
status several days ago. I am reposting this now as requested by sme of our
readers from Manila and Quezon City
With the authority granted to some 280
schools to increase tuition this coming school year, it’s high time to
investigate the Commission on Higher Education (Ched) and other concerned
government agencies.
Practically every year, colleges and
universities are allowed to raise tuition for all sorts of reasons. But the
public hardly gets to know these reasons and how justifiable these really are
to add to the burdens of parents. Making matters worse is there are hardly any
improvements in school facilities, salaries of teachers and non-teaching
employees and the quality of education as a whole.
The Ched, therefore, must be asked
immediately to explain its standards or basis in allowing tuition increases. It
must justify why tuition must go up yearly. More importantly, the Ched must
cite what it has been doing, if any, to help prevent higher tuition on keep
increases to the barest minimum. For this coming school year, media reports say
schools want as much as P36 more per unit. That’s P108 for a three-unit subject
or more than P2,000 for a 21-unit semester or seven subjects. Considering the
hard times, that’s another heavy load for the minimum wage or slightly above
minimum wage earner.
The Ched is a government agency. It’s
for the good and the welfare of the greater majority, and not of a chosen few.
That is an unconditional, encompassing and timeless guideline that the Ched
should follow. The yearly tuition increases indicate otherwise. The public has
a right to know why. 30
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