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[av_heading heading=’EDITORIAL | Free higher education’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”][/av_heading]
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Friday, June 2, 2017
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HERE’S one good development. Both Houses of Congress have approved the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education.
The bill is a product of a long campaign for free higher education and greater budget for education. It exempts from tuition, miscellaneous and other school fees students in bachelor degree and undergraduate courses in state universities and colleges (SUCs) and local universities and colleges (LUCs) and students in post-secondary technical-vocational education training leading to non-degree and diploma programs of state technical vocational institutions (TVIs). It also provides for tertiary education subsidy (TES) to students in undergraduate post-secondary courses in SUCs, LUCs, private higher education institutions and TVIs. TES covers allowances for books, supplies, transportation, and other personal expenses related to education aside from tuition and other school fees.
President Duterte should sign the bill into law as soon as possible so the youth can avail themselves of free college education, and provide more funds to SUCs and other higher education institutions starting with the 2018 budget.
The Executive branch is now finalizing its proposal for next year’s budget. It should include the funds necessary to implement free higher education in the allocations of our SUCs, the Commission on Higher and Education, and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.
Free higher education, however, is only the first step. The government has to also establish an education system that is democratized and serves national sovereignty, industrial modernization and economic redistribution. It should espouse among the youth a critical culture to fight dogma and discourses that legitimize social injustice.
Let us send more youth to college.
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