MANILA, Philippines?Eight students, including a young woman, on Monday shaved their heads outside Congress gates to express their opposition to the cuts to the budget of state universities and colleges (SUCs).

The protesting students from the Youth Against Debt of the Freedom from Debt Coalition also gave the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) a "fail" grade for not working on a higher budget for education.

The youth group appealed to Congress "to exercise its political will and give more to higher education," because "these students will be...the future workforce."

YAD told reporters that the government has been spending a mere six pesos per day for every student since 1987 even when the United Nations Economic, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) has set the international standards on education spending at 6 percent of the country?s Gross National Product (GNP).

"We call on the new Congress to pass an alternative education budget bill, (with) automatic appropriations to education measured at 6 percent of our GNP to enhance accessibility to education and skills development," said YAD.

The appeal to congressmen was a day before deliberations on the budget of SUCs. They asked for recognition of the youth's "right to education," as well as to "make education accessible to all Filipino youth."

National Union of Students in the Philippines (NUSP) president Einstein Recedes said shaving their head was meant to highlight their opposition to the shaving of the 2011 education budget.

This was the latest of the student rallies and demonstrations headed by the NUSP in relation to the SUC budget deliberations.