House Starts Probe on Tuition Hikes

The successive closures of two of the country's leading pre-need education firms finally prompted Congress to probe into tuition deregulation. However, strong pressure from various associations of private school owners and the weakness of the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) to control tuition hikes show that the students' decades-long fight is far from over.

By Carl Marc Ramota
Bulatlat

Days after the May 4 joint meeting of the House of Representatives’ Committees on Higher and Technical Education (CHTE) and on Basic Education and Culture (CBEC) on tuition deregulation, Fr. Rolando dela Rosa resigned as chair of the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd). He castigated the government and Congress for "their lack of political will to implement reforms in higher education and accused politicians of yielding to private school owners' interests."

But as the scuffle continues, so are the looming tuition increases for the coming school year.

CHEd's Failure

The joint House committee meeting placed CHEd in a hot seat. The joint committee was supposed to discuss four pending bills and two resolutions on tuition hikes. House Bills 2904, 2268, 1601 and 738 seek to regulate tuition and other fees and propose the creation of a tuition regulation board or council to determine tuition rates. The bills were filed by Representatives Roquero, Tulagan, Magsaysay, Figueroa, Celeste, Puentevella, Barinaga, Syjuco, Petilla, Codilla, Amin and Nicolas.

A similar version, Senate bill 302, was filed by Sen. Ramon Magsaysay, Jr. in the upper chamber.

Meanwhile, the House resolutions 35 and 100 direct the CHTE to investigate the "apparent gross failure" of CHEd to regulate tuition and other school fees and freeze proposed increases in tuition and miscellaneous fees pending investigation. The authors include representatives from Bayan Muna, Anakpawis and Gabriela Women's Party list.

CHEd's data revealed that average percentage increase in tuition for school year 2004-2005 ranged from 8 percent to 18 percent. On the other hand, the report on the average tuition increase in private schools for the coming academic year is yet to be finalized by CHEd.

The Commission admitted that it has the power to regulate tuition and other fees based on Batas Pambansa 232, Section 42 or the Education Act of 1982 which states that "all applications for proposed tuition and other fee increases are subject to rules and regulations promulgated by CHEd." But private school owners claim that the same law allows them to increase tuition in whatever rate they want, so long as it undergoes the consultation process. School owners also assert that other school fees are not covered by CHEd's supervision as it is not included in the CHEd memorandum no. (CMO) 13 or the guidelines on proposed tuition increase consultations which took effect in 1998.

On the other hand, Rizza Ramirez, national president of the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) chided the Commission for its lack of political will to stand up to private school owners. "The CHEd is toothless. Since its creation, the Commission has been reduced into a mere monitoring agency. Instead of acting as the controller, CHEd willingly serves as private schools' legal stamp pad for proposed tuition increases," she pointed out.

Stalled implementation

Ramirez also criticized the Commission's failure to implement the revised guidelines for tuition increase consultations, which was supposed to be implemented last school year. "Two years have already passed and CHEd has yet to implement the revised guidelines. This only shows the Commission can be quickly maneuvered by private school owners whose interests will be affected by the new guidelines."

Under the revised CMO 13, other school fees will now be included in the consultation in both public and private higher education institutions. It also changes the 15-day notice for concerned parties prior to consultation to 30 days.

"Schools pose zero or minimal tuition increase during enrolment but they have been bloating miscellaneous fees which are mostly questionable, such as the energy fee of the University of Santo Tomas, “aircon” fee of the University of the East and the development fee," she said.

Ramirez however admitted that while the students clinched victories for the revised guidelines, some provisions remain favorable only to school owners. "The revised guidelines still allow schools to hike tuition without consultation if the increase is less than or equivalent to the previous year's inflation rate and in schools granted autonomous and deregulated status with level II accreditation," she said.

Another scheme

Meanwhile, Raymond Palatino, Anak ng Bayan (children of the nation) Youth Party vice president warned of another looming scheme to further institutionalize tuition increase in higher education institutions.

"The current bills filed in Congress on tuition regulation are two-faced,” Palatino said. “While they appear to favor regulation, these bills are proposing for the creation of tuition boards which will only institutionalize unabated yearly increases in tuition and other fees."

"It's useless if it will still be dominated by powerful private school owners associations and CHEd and government officials which they can easily dictate," he said.

Instead, Palatino urged lawmakers to speed up investigations and review the Education Act of 1982 which students since the 1980's have been fighting to be scrapped.

"Our lawmakers must act now before it's too late. College education in the country is in the brink of a breakdown. The first thing our legislators must to do is to scrap the government's tuition deregulation policy," the Anak ng Bayan leader said.

He also called on lawmakers to probe schools which are frequently included in the top 1,000 corporations in the country and freeze planned tuition increases for the coming school year. Among these schools are Centro Escolar University (CEU), Far Eastern University (FEU), Mapua Institute of Technology (MIT), University of the East (UE), AMA Computer University and STI Colleges. Bulatlat

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