Tuition Moratorium in State Universities & Colleges?

The Freeman Publication Date: [June 12, 2006]
Cebu Daily News Publication Date: [June 15, 2006]

Contrary to the present regime’s claim of a tuition moratorium in the state universities and colleges, the iskolars ng bayan lament the increase of tuition in the UP Manila College of Medicine and the UP Extension Program in Pampanga.

From 11,529 pesos per semester, the UP Manila College of Medicine now charges a tuition of more than 20,045 pesos per semester. Likewise, the UP Pampanga Management Program’s tuition increased from P500 per unit to P1, 500 per unit.

The gigantic slashes in the education budget in the past few years have not only led to deteriorating facilities and services in state universities and colleges. More so, the government’s abandonment of its responsibility to fully subsidize education has led to the imposition and increase of tuition and other fees.

Such impositions only put more weight to the already heavy economic hardships faced by the Filipino people today.

Hence, fewer students are opting to continue with their studies. Those who find private schools too expensive now realize the same conditions existing in the state universities and colleges.

If the Arroyo regime continues with such anti-student schemes, then it will be only a matter of time before it is ousted from power. Education, after all, must remain a right and never a privilege for an economically advantaged few.

By Karlo Mikhail Mongaya
Chairperson, Student Council
UP Visayas – Cebu College