Educators urged: Freeze tuition

[grabehbebe]

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By Florante S. Solmerin
http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?...s03_may04_2006

THE Commission on Higher Education has appealed to owners of colleges and universities to shelve their petitions for a tuition increase for school year 2006-2007.

CHED Chairman Carlito Puno said President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has also asked the regulatory body to convince school owners not to increase their fees at this time.

There are 99 colleges and universities that have already filed a petition for tuition increase, Puno said. However, two schools withdrew their petition.

Some 35 of the petitioners are seeking increases beyond the 7.6 percent ceiling set by the commission.

Puno said that the petitioners anchored their request for tuition increase from the rising cost of maintenance. According to Puno, 40 percent of the colleges and universities in Metro Manila—15 percent of them “major or high-end schools”—were planning to increase tuition.

“Outside Metro Manila, about 10 percent of all higher-education institutions also intended to raise tuition.”

Under the law, schools are allowed to increase tuition based on the previous year’s inflation rate. Of the proposed increase, 70 percent will go to schools’ manpower; 20 percent to facilities improvement; and 10 percent to investment.

“CHED will rule on the petitions before school season starts next month,” Puno said.
Meanwhile, the Kabataan Sectoral Party blasted the commission’s plans to put up call centers in state universities and colleges, saying it will lead to mediocre education.

Kabataan Party vice president Carl Marc Ramota said: “We have nothing against call centers but state universities and colleges were established to serve as centers of academic excellence and research institutions that will help uplift the country’s economy.”

“Instead of focusing on fields which will help bring about national industrialization and modernize agriculture, the government is investing in call centers which do not provide any long term and sustainable growth to the economy,” he explained.

[baron]

This is one of the government's initiative to help those families who wanted their children to continue their schooling. I hope that the school administrators and owners have their own share of helping these children. It should be noted to them that the primary purpose of education is not being it a business venture. Rather, education should be seen as an important avenue to help the country move forward to success.

[jumps_zilla]

increasing tuituion will only make it harder for our people to get the education needed to get a good job in the future. i hope that schools will withdraw their petitions to increase tuition.