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130 private schools hike tuition, SUCs raise school fees


MANILA, Philippines — A youth group on Wednesday criticized the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) as 130 tertiary schools across the country revealed tuition hikes for the next school year. According to CHEd, the schools are reported to have asked an increase in their tuitions by 5, 7 or 10 percent. “It now appears that CHEd’s earlier appeal for a freeze in tuition hikes is really just lip-service and downright insincere," said Kabataang Pinoy spokesperon Alvin Peters in a statement. “We have documented these increases as early as February, during tuition consultations, when our hotlines buzzed with complaints from students everywhere. We brought them to CHEd’s attention but they neglected to act on our complaints and instead just came up with a bogus appeal for a tuition freeze to downplay student protests," said Peters, who is also currently the national president of the National Union of Students of the Philippines, spearhead of the Tuition Monitor Hotline. He said that they have submitted to CHEd a critique of CHEd Memorandum No. 13, the existing guideline for tuition increase consultations, pointing out its flaws and inadequacy to regulate tuition. He said that they have also repeatedly requested for dialogues with CHEd with regard to ‘bogus consultations’ where students were either not informed of consultations or were ‘tricked’ by school administrators into agreeing to proposals without due process.’ “CHEd Memo 13 is a veritable ‘rubber stamp’ for schools to increase tuition and other fees. No real consultations happened between school administrators and other stakeholders such as parents and students. The CMO also does not cover miscellaneous and other fees," Peters said. Peters said that CHEd instead continues to implement a deregulated tuition environment wherein it is powerless against school owners’ big businesses. “We will not be surprised if CHEd approved these proposals soon, the agency is spineless." Moratorium in SUCs a lie Kabataang Pinoy also lambasted Malacanang for “blatantly lying" about stopping tuition increases in state colleges and universities (SUCs) in light of the current economic crisis. President Arroyo herself announced an order a few months ago for school administrations to impose a moratorium on all tuition and school fees in SUCs. It noted that the University of the Philippines Board of Regents has secretly approved a string of increases in miscellaneous and laboratory fees. These include: • an increase in the UP Mindanao tuition of graduate students of the School of Management from P400 per unit to P1000 per unit and increase in miscellaneous fees from P1,530 to P2,330 per semester; • an increase in the UP Diliman College of Home Economics graduate program tuition from P550 per unit to P2500 per unit; • an increase in the School of Statistics tuition for graduate program from P600 per unit to P2500 per unit, from P300 per unit to P2000 per unit for incoming students working in government agencies and not benefiting from any scholarship; • an increase in tuition in the UP Extension Programs in Pampanga and Olongapo graduate programs from P1500 to P2500 per unit; and; • the institution of new laboratory fees in the Colleges of Mass Communications and Engineering. "CHEd and Malacañang's moves are not enough. If they are really want to ease the students' and parents' burden, the government should not just make appeals but must come out with a concrete moratorium order on tuition and miscellaneous hikes on all higher education institutions this coming school year," Peters said. - D'Jay Lazaro, GMANews.TV
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