Student group urges ban on tuition fee hikes
By Jerome Aning
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:21:00 06/07/2008
Filed Under: Education
MANILA, Philippines -- A militant student group on Saturday questioned the non-inclusion of private schools in the tuition moratorium announcement of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, saying this has left a greater number of the country's students to the mercy of “education vultures.”
The League of Filipino Students said tuition in private learning institutions should be regulated by the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) and the government.
LFS national chair Vencer Crisostomo said there were more private tertiary schools than public schools and more students were enrolled in tertiary private schools. He cited 2004 government data showing there were only 424 public schools against 1,363 private schools.
“And the private schools are the ones more notorious in increasing their tuition unjustly precisely because government refuses to regulate tuition,” he said.
He said it was within the powers of CHEd to regulate tuition, saying that no less than the 1987 Constitution states the responsibility of the state to ensure quality and accessible education.
“The government should be held responsible for betraying the Constitution and letting tertiary education fall in the hands of vultures,” Crisostomo said, citing Art. XIV, Sec. 1 of the 1987 Constitution which states:
According to CHEd data, 378 private tertiary schools have implemented a tuition increase this year with a nationwide average of 10 percent.
LFS called for the suspension and investigation of tuition increases with a view to rolling them back if schools were proven to have abused their discretion in raising fees.
According to Crisostomo, there should be no reason to allow increases in tuition in private schools as most of the schools were making millions in profits.
He added that big private schools such as University of the East, Centro Escolar University, Mapua Institute of Technology, Far Eastern University, Feati, National Teachers College, Manila Cenral University, Cebu Doctors University, and Velez College have been consistently on the list of the country's Top 1.000 Corporations.
"Many will not be able to enroll this year because of the greed of the big 'capitalist-educators.' In this light, allowing them to raise tuition further is criminal," Crisostomo said.
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