Students hit CHED’s failure to regulate tuition hikes
The Kabataan Party and the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) today chided the Commission on Higher Education’s (CHED) for its lack of political will to stand up to private school owners and regulate unabated tuition hikes.
“The CHED has been reduced into a mere monitoring agency. Despite formal complaints and protests from students and parents, CHED remains toothless even as to implementing its limp guidelines in holding so-called consultations,” Kabataan Party President Raymond Palatino said.
Palatino added that CHED, for the past years, has miserably failed to implement meaningful and significant reforms in higher education and utterly lacked political will to stand up against abusive private school owners.
He said the higher percentages and increase in the number of tuition increases this school year only confirmed fears that CHED’s last-minute policy change lifting the tuition cap will further make it easier for school owners to impose bigger hikes in tuition and other fees.
“The lifting of the tuition cap only shows the Commission can be quickly maneuvered by private school owners.”
Meanwhile, Palatino urged lawmakers to speed up investigations and review the Education Act of 1982 which students since the 1980’s have been fighting to be scrapped.
“Our lawmakers must act now before it’s too late. College education in the country is in the brink of a breakdown. The first thing our legislators must to do is to scrap the government’s tuition deregulation policy.”
He also called on lawmakers to probe schools which are frequently included in the top 5,000 corporations in the country and freeze planned tuition increases for the coming school year. Among these schools are Centro Escolar University (CEU), Far Eastern University (FEU), Mapua Institute of Technology (MIT), University of the East (UE), AMA Computer University and STI Colleges.
Palatino said Kabataan and NUSP will lead a nationwide protest against tuition and other fee increases on June 13 to mark the opening of classes in various colleges and universities.
June 11th, 2007 at 6:35 am
[…] So they take hits against “CHED’s failure to regulate tuition hikes.” And they continue by asking lawmakers to “Overhaul tuition system.” The Senators-elect are not excempted. “Make your promises a reality,” the same youth groups declare. […]