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Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts Volume 3, Number 18 June 8 - 14, 2003 Quezon City, Philippines |
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Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts Volume 3, Number 18 June 8 - 14, 2003 Quezon City, Philippines |
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Student
Militants Protest Tuition Hikes, Shortage of Teachers Generations
of Filipino students have been taking to the streets to protest yearly
tuition increases, campus repression and the shortage in teachers and
classrooms. The same issues – sustained by government mispriorities and
bias for defense budget increases – are prompting student militants to
launch another round of protests as school reopens this week. By
Ronalyn Olea As
classes for the new schoolyear open this week, high school and college students
held separate protest actions outside the offices of the Commission on Higher
Education (CHED) and Department of Education (DepEd) in Pasig City, Metro Manila
late last week. The
students were protesting the new round of tuition hikes and the failure of
education officials to stop the increases. Latest
CHED data show that 252 private higher educational institutions in 12 regions
have increased tuition. The national average increase is 12 percent with P35.67
equivalent or P350.23 per unit. Posting
the highest the highest increase with 200 percent or from P200 per unit in all
programs to P600 is the Divine Word School of Technology in Tagaytay City. In
Metro-Manila, 63 private colleges and universities increased their tuition by an
average of 13 percent.
This amounts to P61.63 or P589.36 per unit. Speaking
during the protest action, Leonardo Guevarra Jr., deputy secretary general of
the National Union of Students of the Philippines, said, denounced the CHED as
reducing itself “to a monitoring body and has therefore become inutile to the
interests of the students.” High-risk
schools Dion
Carlo Cerafon, secretary general of the Student Christian Movement of the
Philippines (SCMP), assailed the appointment of Rolando Dizon as the new
chairman of CHED. It was Dizon who named five high-risk (security) schools
because of the strong presence of militant student organizations. His
declaration, Cerafon said, “…intensified repression on campuses.” The
SCMP leader said that it is certain Dizon, being the former president of the De
La Salle University, will protect the interests of his fellow school owners. In
another protest last week, Anakbayan-High School picketed the DepEd office to
protest insufficient budget for education, dilapidated classrooms, lack of
teachers and textbooks. DepEd
data show that there is a shortage of 49,000 teachers all over the country.
Aside from these is a shortage of 44,000 classrooms and four million armchairs.
The figures – which are more or less the same over the past few years – seem
to show no tangible action has been done by education authorities to address the
perennial problem. Admitting the shortage, DepEd Secretary Edilberto de Jesus has said that the government has not allocated any funding to address the problem. But China de Vera, Anakbayan High School spokesperson, said, De Jesus’s admission only shows that the government “is not serious in addressing the pressing problems of the education sector.” Bulatlat.com We want to know what you think of this article.
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