Pass pending bills on education, solons urged
The Kabataan Party and the National Union of Students of the Philippines urged lawmakers to maximize the remaining days of the 13th Congress by passing pending bills that seek to institute much needed reforms in the education sector.
Among the bills awaiting approval are the proposed moratorium on tuition and other fee increases and amendments to the Education Act of 1982 which placed private tertiary education in a deregulated environment, Kabataan Party President Raymond Palatino said.
“It’s high time that Congress starts to flex its muscles on unabated increases in tuition and other fees. Government’s tuition deregulation policy has resulted to skyrocketing tuition and miscellaneous fee hikes and caused the ranks of dropouts and out-of-school youth to swell for the past decade. ”
Palatino particularly emphasized the need to resolve the controversy created by the anomalous suspension of CHED Memorandum Order No. 14 or the guidelines for tuition and other fee increase applications and its subsequent amendments last February.
“We call on the lawmakers to investigate CHED and its officials for committing grave abuse of discretion and violating its own standard operating procedures when it hastily suspended the tuition cap amid ongoing tuition consultations.”
CHED Chairman Carlito Puno issued the memorandum suspending the tuition cap last February 20 days before the conclusion of regular tuition hike consultations in private colleges and universities.
Kabataan and NUSP earlier accused CHED of conspiring with the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (COCOPEA) to lift the tuition cap to allow private school owners to increase tuition beyond the inflation rate.
Palatino also urged lawmakers to investigate schools that are charging dubious and excessive fees to students.
In 2003 alone, nine schools landed among the top 1,000 corporations in the country with a combined profit of P1.23 billion, he said, citing data from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“How was it possible for big private schools to rake in millions in profit while CHED’s guidelines only provide a 10 percent return of investment for imposed fee increases? School owners have certainly made a lucrative business out of tertiary education and CHED appears to be a willing accomplice.”
Meanwhile, Palatino said the next Congress should conduct a comprehensive review of existing education policies similar to the Education Commission of 1992.
“The recurring problems hounding the education sector should prompt lawmakers and education officials to assess the effectiveness and viability of existing policies and formulate new policies that are responsive to the needs of students, the academe and the local economy in general.”