SOME private schools providing basic to higher education have applied for tuition fee increases for the next school year, the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations of the Philippines (COCOPEA) said.
In a “24 Oras” on Monday, July 1, the group said said tuition fee hikes are long overdue and that 70% of the tuition fee increase would go to the teachers’ salaries.
“To respond to the inflation and the difficulty, economic difficulties being experienced by our parents, we cannot help but also apply for tuition increase ranging from 3% to 9%, 12%,” said COCOPEA chairman Fr. Albert Delvo.
“Some of these schools the last time that they applied for an increase was even pre-pandemic. So, I think it was just really about time for them to adjust their fees,” said COCOPEA legal counsel Kristine Carmina Manaog.
The Department of Education (DepEd) is gathering information about the schools that applied for tuition fee hikes while the Commission on Higher Education said it has yet to discuss a tuition fee increase in the Commission en Banc.
If the tuition hike is approved, parents like Nicolas Flores will be affected.
“Siyempre kung ano gusto niya pumasok susuportahan namin. Kung ako tatanungin, government school sana, ‘di ganun kalaki babayaran,” said Flores, who has a child in college.
Flores is currently working as a real estate agent and an insurance agent.
Meanwhile, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has picked Senator Sonny Angara as the new DepEd secretary, replacing Vice President Sara Duterte.
The Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said that Angara will take the helm of the DepEd starting July 19.
Vice President Duterte resigned as DepEd chief on June 19. (GMA Integrated News)
