Protests greet opening of classes in Iloilo City

Iloilo City — Militant youth groups in Iloilo yesterday met the opening of classes with protest actions against tuition and other school fee increases.

Around 50 student leaders and members of Anakbayan, League of Filipino Students and National Union of Students of the Philippines held a picket in front of the regional office of the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) around noon to decry the increase in school fees.

The groups called on the CHEd and government to stop the collection of “dubious” miscellaneous fees which are not subjected to consultation.

Around 50 students of the University of the Philippines in the Visayas also held a picket at the UP in the Visayas campus in this city.

The students claimed that despite being a state university, UP has imposed a 65 percent increase in tuition through adjustments in the schools socialized tuition brackets.

In Eastern Visayas, about one million pupils and students were going back to public schools that lack teachers and classrooms.

Imelda Parado, Department of Education in Eastern Visayas (DepEd-8) information officer, said the department has been trying its best to address the perennial problems by tapping the help of local government units, business groups and nongovernment organizations.

“We don’t only rely on government resources,” she said.

The DepEd-8 was anticipating over a million pupils and students to troop to both elementary and secondary public schools as enrollment for this school year is expected to rise by 10 percent.

In 2010, DepEd-8 recorded 708,715 pupils in the elementary level and 288,740 students in secondary level.

The anticipated increase in the number of enrollees will worsen the problem of lack of teachers and classrooms in Eastern Visayas.

For one, there were only 5,381 public school teachers in the elementary level and 431 in the high school level.

Parado said the DepEd was grateful for the local officials who hired new teachers for their localities.

For classrooms, elementary public schools need 869 new classrooms and 1,184 in the secondary level for this school year.

Parado said several nongovernment organizations and business groups had built and donated classrooms in Eastern Visayas. /INQUIRER