FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 28, 2010
Kabataan Partylist Representative Raymond Palatino said that the youth failed to hear Pres. Aquino’s concrete plans for education in his first State of the Nation Address.
He said that he feared Aquino’s framework of promoting ‘public-private partnerships and more aggressive foreign investments’ would only intensify privatization, commercialization and corporatization of education.
According to Palatino, “Opening further the education sector to private and foreign investors would only make education less accessible to the
youth. It does not at all address the need for higher state subsidy nor the yearly tuition and other fee hikes that hound the education sector.”
The youth solon said that the present education crisis is characterized mainly by the commercialization of public education in order to cope with low government spending. “The burden of budget cuts and poor education spending is being shouldered by students through exorbitant tuition and other fee hikes. Aquino failed to present this sorry state of Philippine education in his speech.”
“Instead, by encouraging a more active role for private and foreign investors in education, Aquino had just virtually declared that he is leaving the education sector at their liberty. This is not different from the past government’s thrust of gradually washing its hands off its responsibility to provide quality and accessible education to the youth.”
Palatino also said that Aquino’s proposal of an additional two years for basic education “also means additional expense to parents and students”.
“We urge Aquino to seriously consider and review the youth’s education agenda:
Increase state spending on education to six (6) percent of the GDP.
Implement a three-year moratorium on tuition and other fee increases in all levels.
Promote a nationalist curriculum.
Uphold democratic rights of students.
Improve teachers’ welfare.
Improve science, research and technology development.
Promote transparency and sanction corruption cases in education programs and contracts.
Review existing policies and institutions of education.
a. Repeal Education Act of 1982.
b. Repeal Campus Journalism Act of 1991.
c. Revamp the government policy of reducing the budget of state universities and colleges.
d. Review and strengthen the regulatory powers of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Department of Education (DepEd) (Bulatlat.com)
Reference:
Kabataan Party-list Rep. Mong Palatino
Romina Astudillo, Media Officer
