Manila councilor calls for 5-year ban on tuition hikes

In an effort to ease the plight of indigent students, a Manila councilor has called on Malacañang to immediately impose a five-year moratorium on tuition hikes in private schools.

In a resolution, DJ Bagatsing of the city’s fourth district said that privately owned and controlled schools, universities and colleges had overlooked their social responsibility in making quality education accessible to the public, particularly the youth.

Bagatsing added that the tuition being collected by these learning institutions was already a heavy burden, even for the middle class.

Every citizen’s right

According to him, Section 1 of Article XIV (14) of the Constitution mandates that the “state shall protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality education at all levels and shall take appropriate steps to make such education accessible to all.”

Bagatsing noted that local governments had already established and maintained a system of free and subsidized public education in the primary, secondary and tertiary levels.

However, there was still an urgent need for the national government to address the issue of skyrocketing tuition rates so that the youth would have access to quality education at all levels, he said.

During a recent forum in Ermita, Manila, the leader of a student militant group called on President Aquino to address the crisis in education. He noted that the government’s inaction on the issue had contributed a lot to the youth’s declining confidence in Aquino.-Maricris Irene V. Tamolang