Calls for tuition moratorium intensify, CHED “toothless”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 26, 2010

The National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP), together with Kabataan Partylist and students from different public and private schools, gear up for protests against tuition and other fee increases.

“We, the students, have no choice but to defend our right to education. It is becoming very difficult for many of us to go to school because of the rapid increase of tuition and other fees,” said Einstein Recedes, national president of the NUSP.

The NUSP, with the Kabataan Partylist, has been meeting with students who report tuition schemes and unjust fee increases in their schools. The NUSP is set to attend tuition consultations today at the Philippine School of Business Administration (PSBA) and Jose Rizal University (JRU).

“A tuition consultation, to be true to its name, should be democratic and consultative. Many tuition consultations we have attended serve as venues for the mere passing down of decisions by the school administration to the students,” Recedes said.

“It is also important to note that, in the final analysis, a tuition consultation is a smokescreen which cannot solve the problem on tuition and other fee increases. CHED and the government should straighten up their skewed policies which spawned the deregulated environment of the Philippine education system” he continued.

CHED’s appeal to schools not to increase tuition was rebuked by Recedes as “toothless.” The NUSP will hold a protest today at CHED to call for a tuition moratorium.

“I cannot fathom why CHED still exists if it can’t regulate and command the schools with regard to tuition and other fee increases. We can’t help but think that CHED protects the interests of the school owners and not that of the students,” Recedes said.

“We call for CHED to pass a tuition moratorium for the our sake, the students. We will never tire of advancing our constitutional right to education because our future is at stake here,” he said.

Reference:
Einstein Recedes, NUSP National President
Vanessa Faye Bolibol, NUSP Secretary General