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[av_heading heading=’Tuition anxiety’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’18’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
EDITORIAL
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Thursday, February 22, 2018
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CAMPUS groups seek to be enlightened on the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Law or Republic Act (RA) 10931 which promised to make tertiary education accessible to all Filipino youth. Many have become anxious as the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) has remained bizarrely mum on queries as to who will benefit, how much, and how will it be implemented.
Six months have passed since the law was enacted, two CHED commissioners have left their posts and several news advisories circulated that the IRR has been finalized, but free education has remained out of the reach of millions college applicants, making their future uncertain and their parents frantic.
Not a few fear that the delay maybe caused by the aggressive lobbying of owners of private universities. Corporate lobbying and inadequate allocations to fully implement RA 10931 will add up to the multiple restrictions of the law’s provisions and will likely exacerbate the inaccessibility of education, further marginalizing its supposed beneficiaries.
If the framers of the law intended RA 10931 to level the playing field, they will be most disappointed with its outcome. Does this government reek with elitism that it even legislated the restrictions that will systematically discriminate against those with average IQs and those with inferior primary education?
Restrictions such as the required accreditation of local universities and colleges (LUCs), which perennially suffer from inadequate funds, cannot meet state standards due to their lack of facilities. This will automatically bar their enrollees from gaining access to the student loan program and receive much needed subsidies to cover books, gadgets and other expenses needed to pursue their studies.
CHED announced late last year that only 23 of the 118 LUCs were accredited, further disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of indigent students who rely only on the initiatives of local government units and their meager resources.
Is the CHED deliberately keeping the list of accredited LUCs under wraps? This is further contributing to the apprehension of many students and their parents.
Also, while RA 10931 boasts of quality education in its title, it does not mention anything on how to achieve this and how students can avail themselves of it. The entire budget for tertiary education this 2018 is monstrously inadequate to accommodate all students, much more provide quality education. If CHED’s own data were to be believed, the standard cost per student is P31,904 and if multiplied with the total number of Filipino college students which stands at more than 3.58 million next academic year, P114.52 billion is needed to recognize the rights of all students to quality education. This is a far cry from the allotted 58.7 billion pesos by Congress. And this does not yet include the cost of educational expenses and the cost of living allowance which RA 10931 is also said to cover.
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