Tuition rate doubled under Arroyo admin – Kabataan

Kabataan Party-list Rep. Mong Palatino today warned that the number of students who would opt to drop out from school will increase dramatically this school opening due to tuition and school fee hikes.

According to Palatino, the yearly dropout rate is a cause for alarm and something that DepEd’s Brigada Balik-Eskwela and the government should immediately address.

Based on 2008 data from the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd), out of 100 grade 1 pupils, only 66 finish grade 6 equivalent to a 44 percent dropout rate, 58 enroll in first year high school or an 8 percent dropout rate, 43 finish high school or a 15 percent dropout rate, 23 enroll in college or a 20 percent dropout rate, and only 14 graduate from college or a nine percent dropout rate.

“With the current crisis and the continued lack of government response, we can expect these figures to go up this coming school year. The Arroyo government has made education less accessible to Filipinos. The enrollment rate has been in a steady decline under the Arroyo administration,” said Palatino.

Palatino said that from 1995-2002, enrollment grew at a rate of 1.98 percent but has dropped to 0.97 percent since 2003 to 2007. “We expect this figure to drop dramatically this year due to incessant tuition and school fee hikes imposed during this time of severe economic crisis,” Palatino said.

Palatino said that for basic and secondary education, it would cost around P15,000 to P20,000 to send a student to a public elementary or high school. “Despite free tuition in public elementary and high schools, this amount would still be needed to cover other school fees, text books, school supplies, transportation, food and other expenses. School fees are also on the rise due to lack of budgetary allocation for education,” said Palatino.

In the tertiary level, the national average tuition increase was 9.93 percent or P38.92, the current rate per unit P437.10; while in the National Capital Region, the average tuition was pegged at P855.20 per unit in 2008.

“This coming school year, despite CHEd’s so-called appeal to school owners and Malacanang’s promises, more than 130 tertiary schools are expected to raise their tuitions by five to seven percent. This figure, unfortunately, only covers tuition and does not yet include exorbitant and unnecessary miscellaneous fees that school administrations could freely impose for added profit due to a deregulated tuition policy,” said Palatino.

Palatino announced that he plans to endorse and co-author House Bill No. 2440 titled “An Act Imposing a Three Year Moratorium on Tuition and Other Fee Increases on All Educational Institutions,” authored by Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casino. He added that the government should also increase budgetary allocation and subsidy to education to “˜prevent schools and educational institutions from hiking up their tuitions.’

Palatino announced that Kabataan Party-list will be launching “˜Brigada Bulok-Eskwela’ in the following days to continue to expose the worsening crisis in the education system and the government’s flawed policies.