Students Suffer from High Tuition Rates, Repression under GMA

The students of the country today are left to fend for themselves as the government lessens its responsibility of providing quality education and looking after the rights and welfare of the youth. As if this is not enough, the Arroyo administration imposes policies that curtail their rights. 

BY ZOFIA LEAL
Bulatlat

Students are burdened with budget cuts, yearly increases in tuition rates, and repressive policies of government and school administrations.

For the school year 2006-2007, 27.31 percent or 390 private higher education institutions (HEI) have increased their tuition according to the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd). The table below shows the increase of tuition since the year 2001. 

If the 2005 budget will be re-enacted, state universities and colleges (SUCs) will have to do with P16.9 million ($323,972 at an exchange rate of $1=P52.165) from the P102.62 billion ($1,967,219,399) allotted for the Department of Education (DepEd). This is a far cry from the P190.49 billion ($3,651,682,162) that is needed by the department to answer all its needs, according to the study of Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT). 

HOPE OF THE NATION? Students on their way to school in Batasan Hills, Quezon City

Students would also have to face the increase of other fees such as the 100 percent increase in the library fee from P400 ($7.66) to P800 ($15.33) for the University of the Philippines.  In the University of Santo Tomas (UST), a new fee was imposed on freshmen, the Physical Infrastructure Development Fee amounting to P1,500 (28.75).  Universities have become profitable business ventures as in the case of the University of the East (UE), which is owned by business tycoon Lucio Tan. UE was in the Top 1000 Corporations in 2001 according to Businessworld with a profit of P636.7 million ($12,205,501). UE increased its tuition this year by 8.5 percent without consultation with students.  According to CHEd Memorandum No. 14, schools that would increase above the inflation rate, which is pegged at 7.6 percent, should hold consultations with affected sectors, especially students.

Last June 9, the Committee on Higher and Technical Education of the House of Representatives concluded that CHEd Memo No. 14 is illegal as it goes against the mandate of CHEd to regulate tuition increases.  The committee also said that tuition increases without consultations are illegal. 

Decreasing government subsidies to SCUs

Government policies under Gloria Macapagal Arroyo such as the Long Term Higher Education Development Plan (LTHEDP) 2001- 2010 and Medium Term Higher Education Development Plan (MTHEDIP) 2001-2004 formulated by the CHEd further weakened the education sector. The MTHEDIP aims to address the low quality of education in universities and colleges and the issue of equity or access of the poor to education.  However, the CHEd’s solution to these issues is to lessen government responsibility in providing education to the people.       

Under LTHEDP, the government aims that by the year 2010:

-          the number of SCUs will decrease by 20 percent

-          six SCUs will be semi-corporatized

-          20 percent of SCUs will be self sufficient by selling intellectual products and grants

-          50 percent of SCUs will have active income generating projects

-          70 percent of SCUs will have tuition comparable to private universities

-          60 percent of the SCUs will have collaborations with big industries and businesses. 

Both plans do not address the problem of education in the country today. It merely enables the government to further lessen its subsidies to state colleges and universities.  Notwithstanding the current trend of students transferring to SCU’s because they could not afford the tuition of private institutions, the government seeks to encourage SCU’s to implement tuition hikes to provide for their needs amid decreasing government subsidies.  

Campus repression

While barely being able to cope with increasing costs of education, students also have to deal with repressive policies in their own universities.  In the University of the East and University of Santo Tomas, students are made to sign waivers that they will not join any organization that is not recognized by the university, apparently referring to progressive organizations.  In the Centro Escolar University, students are not even allowed to form organizations.

Room-to-room discussions about national and student issues are not allowed in some universities.  At the Far Eastern University, security guards reprimanded students discussing the Hello Garci tapes scandal inside a classroom. The campus director of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines-Bataan Export Processing Zone (PUP) imposed a disciplinary action on Deo Destreza, acting president of the Supreme Student Council, for holding room-to-room discussions.

Even high school students are not spared from such policies.  A student from San Francisco High School was not allowed to enroll this school year after school administrators discovered that he is a member of the League of Filipino Students. 

Repressive policies cover a broad range of student behavior.  Students are not allowed to bring food inside the classroom at the Far Eastern University.  Students caught smoking while in uniform are penalized at the Centro Escolar University.  At the University of Santo Tomas, male students are not allowed to grow their hair up to the collar purportedly for good grooming.

Campus repression and counter-insurgency

Campus repression is not being implemented by the school administration alone.  At UP-Diliman, Marines have been deployed as security guards to do surveillance work.   

Last July 19, staff writers Jerome Obligar, 18, and Jericho Blanco, 19, and editor-in-chief Aileen Abiera, 17, of Epitome, the official student publication of PUP Lopez-Extension, attended a symposium sponsored by the 76 ^th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army at their gymnasium. Upon arrival at the venue, the three students were photographed and videotaped and were promptly subjected to interrogation by the military. 

 "They asked intimidating questions to the three one by one. They were told that the College Editors Guild of the Philippines and National Union of Students of the Philippines were supporters of the New People's Army. They were also warned to stop joining protest actions as they might be the next 'target'," PUP Student Regent Henrie Enaje said. 

Student intelligence networks (SIN) are being formed by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in various campuses. Members of the Reserved Officers Training Corps (ROTC) are often asked to be student intelligence officers. At UST, posters labeling progressive organizations as communist fronts are posted around the university allegedly by the SIN. 

At PUP, hundreds of freshmen were forced to undergo the ROTC training despite provisions in the National Student Training Program (NSTP) Act of 2000, which states that military training among students is optional. Enaje said the university administration confirmed that the Department of National Defense asked them to increase the number of ROTC cadets in PUP.

However, for Andrew Zarate, a student from Far Eastern University, he will still continue organizing and informing his fellow students about issues that they face today, including the deprioritization of education by the Arroyo government.

On the occasion of the upcoming State of the Nation Address, Zarate, Enaje and their fellow students will march to Batasan to demonstrate the collective strength of the youth and to call for the immediate ouster of a President who has failed them. Bulatlat   

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