‘Dubious’ miscellaneous school fees exposed at Senate

A party-list lawmaker and two student organizations on Thursday bared at a Senate committee hearing some "dubious" miscellaneous fees allegedly being collected by tertiary schools nationwide, among them resumè printing fee, thesis proposal fee, and band fee. "Dubious, redundant, unreasonable, miscellaneous fees abound in many of our schools. These 'hidden' fees escape the radar of our education agencies like Commission on Higher Education (CHED)," said Kabataan party-list Rep. Raymond Palatino during the hearing. The lawmaker specifically cited the collection of some schools of band fee (University of Nueva Caceres), thesis proposal fee (St. Scholastica's College), thesis editing fee (St. Scholastica's College), resume printing (St. Scholastica's College), memorabilia fee (Polytechnic University of the Philippines), Pistang Pinoy fee (Letran), and communication fee (Central Luzon State University). Palatino, who was joined by National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) and the Student Council Alliance of the Philippines (SCAP), noted that there are colleges and universities that collect energy fees separate from aircon fees, and sports fees apart from athletic fees. Aside from these, SCAP National Capital Region vice chairperson Ranulfo Javelosa III also revealed that there was a school in Isabela that collects a founder's day fee. "We would like to demonstrate here that there are miscellaneous fees that burden our parents and the people who support our education apparently for unfathomable reasons," he said. Javelosa said that miscellaneous fees comprise around 30 to 40 percent of the total cost of education, but Palatino said that there are some schools whose miscellaneous fees exceed the tuition rate itself. "We are not against the collection of miscellaneous fees but some of these fees are unreasonable. Some schools don't (even) provide a breakdown," Palatino said during the hearing. NUSP president Einstein Recedes, however, said that there is also need to regulate tuition rates because of the rising dropout rate, which he said now stands at 83.72 percent, producing only 416,000 college graduates in a decade. He said this is while the five top-grossing schools in the country raked in P15.43 billion in revenue. "Alam ng CHED yan dahil nagpapasa naman ng audited income ang schools (CHED knows that because schools submit audited incomes)," he said. Denial Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines legal counsel Ana Abad noted that St. Scholastica had consulted the parents and students regarding the fees that they collect. Lawyer Antonio Abad, legal counsel of the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities (PACU), likewise said that the cited bogus miscellaneous rates are "isolated cases." "As far as our membership in PACU is concerned, our miscellaneous fees are reasonable," he said during the same hearing. He likewise said that miscellaneous fees differ from school to school depending on their clientele. "The different private schools cater to different social classes," he said. Moreover, PACU's Abad noted that they cannot just operate on the money left from the tuition they charge. According to CHED executive director Julito Vitriolo, the law mandates that 70 percent of the tuition paid by students be used for the salary of the teaching and non-teaching personnel. "We have to impose miscellaneous fees so that we will be able to survive... otherwise the quality of education will go down. Although it is clichè but is in infallible truth that quality education is expensive," said PACU's Abad. Recedes, for his part, said that they are not asking schools not to increase tuition, but that there is a need to regulate their rates. "Di naman po kami nagagalit sa mga eskwelahan na nagtataas ng matrikula kung nalulugi na sila... ayaw naman po namin magsara ang aming mga eskwelahan (We are not angry at schools for increasing their tuition rates to survive, we don't want our schools to close down)," he said. Compromise Vitriolo admitted that the miscellaneous fees cited by Palatino and the two groups were suspicious. But he said that CHED has already drafted a proposal to rationalize such fees. "There are legitimate miscellaneous fees that need to be collected but the other incidental fees need to be studied. Maybe we will consult the different stakeholders," he told reporters after the hearing. The CHED official said that there are 10 "core" miscellaneous fees, which include registration fee, medical and dental fee, athletic fee, and laboratory fee, which students are required to pay schools. PACU's Abad did not object to prospect of rationalizing miscellaneous fees as long as they are not scrapped. "I hope that they are not going to outlaw the imposition of miscellaneous fees. But we are open to the suggestion that there be some regulation," he said in a separate interview. "I hope that we'll be able to reach a win-win situation wherein schools, students, and other officials of government will be able to arrive at a happy compromise and amicable settlement," he added. In the meantime, Senate education committee Sen. Edgardo Angara suggested that the government expand the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (GASTPE). "We ought to alleviate the plight of students and parents," he said. GASTPE, which was born from Republic Act No. 6728, aims to subsidize the transfer of public school students to private schools. Last March, the Department of Budget and Management released P5.769 billion for the program. Earlier, however, Angara said that the government should find an additional P2 billion to channel to GASTPE so that students won't be burdened by rising tuition rates. Vitriolo said that 324 private colleges and universities are eligible to increase their tuition for the coming school year. He added that they increase their rates at 10 percent or P38 per unit on the average. He noted, however, that the state universities and colleges have committed not to increase their tuition because the cuts on their budget were restored. Vitriolo said that students and parents can complain regarding suspicious miscellaneous fees to his office. — KBK, GMA News