CALMING CANINE | A group of incoming freshmen reaches out to pat a dog along the Academic Oval. The dogs were brought in to help relax first-time college students under the UP Diliman Emotional Support Animals program. (Photo by LYN RILLON / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano on Monday called on the University of the Philippines (UP) system to reconsider its policy of abolishing its college admission test (CAT), fearing that its newly installed selection system may not be getting the best from the country’s high school graduates.
Cayetano took the Senate floor to draw support for his proposed Senate Resolution No. 157, which seeks to “strongly” urge the UP administration to resume the conduct of the UPCAT in the coming school year, amid complaints that this new policy is “killing the dreams” of many of the country’s graduates.
“This has been going on for the past two years. Many science high schools around the country are complaining that the best of the best are not getting in because the system is defective,” he said.
According to the senator, UP has suspended the UPCAT since 2020 because of the pandemic and has been selecting students based on their high school grades, citing an announcement on Friday that UP has suspended for the third year its college entrance exam for incoming freshmen.
But UP cannot keep putting off the entrance exam since it gets the “lion’s share” of funds among the country’s state universities and colleges (SUC), according to Cayetano.
“If the UPCAT is not conducted, this victimizes both the child and the university. Why? Because UP gets 23.41 percent of the budget of all the SUCs — almost one-fourth of their budget goes to UP,” he said.
“Greater funds, greater power, greater responsibility. They cannot just take this for granted by not holding the UPCAT. This is so urgent,” Cayetano added.
At Monday’s hearing of the Senate committee on science and technology, Cayetano cited the “unsatisfactory” UPCAT passing rate of Philippine Science High School graduates of only 60.55 percent.
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