Licuanan remark on free tuition ‘insensitive, elitist’–Ched commissioner

Commission on Higher Education (Ched) Commissioner Prospero de Vera on Friday blasted Ched Chair Patricia Licuanan’s earlier statement that the P8.3-billion allocation for free tuition will not help the poor as “insensitive” and “elitist”

On Tuesday, Licuanan said that the the P8.3-billion realigned budget for state universities and colleges (SUCs) will not help the poor because majority of them have stopped schooling and are no longer enrolled in universities. She also mentioned that the poor only comprise eight percent of the total population currently enrolled in college.

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De Vera said in a statement that this view is “insensitive and elitist given the demand for access and equity in higher education by many Filipinos, particularly those coming from poorer households.”

He also argued that even if even if there only eight percent of the poor were enrolled in college, the P8.3B infusion would nonetheless benefit almost 150,000 poor students to complete their education.

“What was the basis to say that only eight percent of the poor are enrolled in higher education? How is ‘poor’ defined? And are the current tuition rates in the 114 state universities and colleges prohibitive only for the poor households?” he asked.

Ched has been asserting that the government should increase allocation in higher education, and now that the government allocated P8.3B for SUCs, de Vera said that he finds it “surprising and even ironic” that the Ched Chair says “it is insufficient and won’t help poor students.”

“Instead of questioning the impact of the new appropriation [for] poor students, Ched should immediately draft the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the P8.3B fund and make sure it is linked with all other student financial assistance funds available in the Ched,” de Vera said.

“Once the free higher education initiative is implemented this year we can identify any gaps and compute the additional costs of providing assistance to the students. Then we can go back to Congress to ask for more funding to fully implement President Rodrigo Duterte’s commitment that no student will be barred from getting a university education on account of financial need,” he added. CDG