PLM stops collection of ‘surprise’ miscellaneous fees from students

Students of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) will no longer have to shell out additional cash during the school year to pay for unexpected miscellaneous expenses such as a field trip, or worse, T-shirts peddled by teachers.

According to PLM President Leonora de Jesus, she has outlawed the practice of teachers collecting miscellaneous fees from students throughout the school year, especially those not accounted for by an official receipt.

“We have banned the collection of fees from our students without the issuance of a receipt. This is a practice in which our students could be deliberately abused,” De Jesus said in an interview.

She added that the order was issued after she discovered that “faculty members collect dues from students that do not go [into] the university’s record books.”

“For example, there are field trips in which the students are required to pay a transportation expense of P600 per student per trip,” De Jesus said.

She also added that there have been reports of faculty members peddling expensive textbooks to students or, worse, items that do not seem to be course-related.

“We were told that there are teachers who require their classes to buy T-shirts for P400 each,” De Jesus said.

However, with PLM’s operations and students being funded or subsidized by its owner—the Manila City government—De Jesus noted that students should not have to shell out more money for miscellaneous expenses.

“If the field trip is part of the curriculum, then the school should pay for it. As for the textbooks and T-shirts, they (teachers) should not be charging students additional fees,” De Jesus said.

She stressed that the rule was implemented during the previous school year and would be in full effect this June.

“We cannot stress [enough] the importance of this because some parents or students really exert effort [to earn] additional income to pay for these things. In the end, they might even sacrifice going to school just to pay [up]. So in the end, they’re the ones affected by these additional charges,” De Jesus said.