EDUCATION BLUES: A bULATLAT Special Report

Tuition hikes unstoppable
‘The President Is Wrong’ - CHED 7 Director

A CHED regional official says tuition hikes above 7.6% could still be approved. This belies President Arroyo’s statement that she would not allow tuition hikes beyond the National Inflation Rate.

BY KAREN PAPELLERO
Bulatlat

CEBU CITY -- “The President is wrong.  The President doesn’t know the law.”

So said Dr. Enrique Grecia, Commission on Higher Education VII Regional Director, in reaction to President Arroyo’s statement that she would not allow schools to raise tuition more than the National Inflation Rate (NIR). He said that it is inherent for schools and administrations to increase their tuition because it is the lifeline of the school.

Grecia gave the speech in a meeting with the Regional Multi-Sectoral Committee on Tuition Increase at the DepED Regional Office VII in Cebu City on May 19.

Twenty-six of 144 colleges and universities in REgion 7 informed Ched that they will increase school fees by June, more than the 22 that applied last year. Eighteen of the 26 schools are in Cebu City and and other town in Cebu province.

"Hndi rin nagpalabas ng memorandum o resolution ang pangulo. Sa halip, ang sinabi ng Pangulo ay kombinsihin ang mga administration na hanggang NIR lang ang itaas sa matrikula,” Grecia said.  (The President did not issue a memorandum nor a resolution. Instead, the President said that the (school) administrations have to be convinced to cap their tuition increases according to the NIR.               

Untimely

 “It is untimely for the President to give such a statement dahil tapos nang naganap ang mga consultations at umaasa na ang karamihan sa mga guro sa 70% na share nila sa pagtaas ng matrikula,”the Director added. (It is untimely for the President to give such a statement because consultations have been done and most of the teachers are already hoping to get their 70% share in the tuition increases.)

He also stated that the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) had to send personnel to the schools where tuition increase exceeded the NIR, after the statements from the President. However, they will still approve such tuition increases as long as they complied with CHED Memo 14. 

CHED Memo 14 states that schools applying for tuition increases do not need to hold consultations as long as the increases do not exceed the National Inflation Rate (NIR), currently at 7.6%. If the increase is beyond the NIR, they had to comply with other requirements such as holding consultations with the students and submitting a compliance certificate that shows that 70 percent of the income from the increase previously imposed benefited the school’s faculty and non-teaching personnel, through higher salaries and 30 percent went to the improvement of school facilities.

Some of the schools applying for increases more than the NIR are medical schools Cebu Doctors’ University (CDU) and Velez College, which have increased tuition at 10 percent and 8.5 percent, respectively. Bohol Northeastern Colleges also applied for a 24.4 percent increase in all levels, raising its rate at P265 per unit from the P213 in the last school year.

In Cebu, five schools  raised tuition rates at 7.6 percent or below.  These were Southwestern University, St. Vincent College Inc., Cebu Aeronautical Technical School, Rogationist Seminary College-Cebu and AMA Computer College.

 "Kahit gusto ko mang hindi magtaas ng tuition, deep in my heart, wala akong magawa”, he said further.  (Even if I don’t want tuition to increase, deep in my heart, there is nothing I can do.)

All for Politics

After the meeting, the Cebu Chapter of the National Union of Student in the Philippines (NUSP), a national alliance of tertiary student councils and governments, issued a statement reiterating their call on freezing tuition hikes.

“Thinking that the people will be foolish to believe yet another ploy from her office, PGMA issues this misleading press statement. The people should be more vigilant against the façade of concern that PGMA is showing because it is all for her glory, it is all to raise her ratings and publicity. There is no truth to all her promises,” stated NUSP Vice President for the Visayas, Ma. Fe Jayme.

“The public display of concern for the students and the youth shown by PGMA is all for politics. It is all a pretense to save her rotting image.,” added Jayme.

“Education is our right but PGMA doesn’t appear to know that. We have to take these matters into our hands and struggle for what is rightly ours and oust the ignorant president,” Jayme concluded. Bulatlat