DAVAO CITY - The party list Kabataan criticized Friday the Commission on Higher Education for suspending memorandum orders that limit tuition increases by private schools.
Karla Hyasmind Apat, Kabataan vice president for Mindanao, said the suspension of memo orders can be considered an attack to the student’s right to accessible education.
“We are threatened that the government’s acquiescence to private schools to repeal the limit to tuition and other fees increase will pave the way to an increase in the number of students dropping out of schools,” Apat said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.
She said CHED released a memorandum Feb. 20 informing colleges and universities that Memorandum Order 14 (CMO) and the two ensuing orders have been suspended pending review by the government commission.
The new order advised schools to “withhold recognition” of CMOs 14 of 2004, 42 of 2006, and 7 of 2007 “as the prevailing policy in tuition increase."
The memo orders imposed limits on tuition increases. CMO 7 states that tuition and other fees increase “should not be more than the prevailing national inflation rates.
CHED said it would instead follow CMO 13 as a guideline for any tuition increase for the current school year.
“But CMO 13 does not impose a limit on tuition increase. It only requires a consultation with the stakeholders which ends in mere informing the students regarding the increase,” Apat said.
The Kabataan party list fears that since CMO 13 does not include miscellaneous and other fees in consultation, schools can raise tuition fees by increasing miscellaneous and other fees.
The order, she said, is now being used by the University of Mindanao to propose as much as 11.36% increase in tuition fees.
Davin Acuram, UM student and president of the College Student Government, said the school administration reasoned out that the increase was prompted by the escalating prices of commodities.
“These are the same reasons that made CHED to submit to the private schools campaign to lift the cap on tuition increase. CHED has just institutionalize the annual increase without due consideration that Filipino students and their families who cannot afford such increases because of the increasing gap between the price of education and the capacity of the Filipinos to spend on it,” she said.
Apat’s group and members of the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) and different student organizations were planning to file a case in court to seek a temporary restraining order to stop CHED from revoking the restriction on tuition increases.
Showing posts with label Tuition Fee Hike. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tuition Fee Hike. Show all posts
Friday, March 02, 2007
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Mindanao Students Burdened With Tuition Fee Hikes
DAVAO CITY – The Kabataan Party List on Thursday scored the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) for being inutile in enforcing its mandate in regulating tuition and other fees increases leading to the youth’s perennial and annual problem of the rising cost of education.
“Their inutility and submissiveness of CHED to abusive private Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) has cost sweat and blood of Filipino students clamoring for accessible education,” Karla Hyasmind Apat, the party list vice president for Mindanao, said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.
Apat cited the current proposal of the local University of Mindanao (UM) administration to increase their tuition and miscellaneous fees by 11.36%.
Davin Acuram, president of the College Student Government, said the school administration reasoned out that the tuition fee increase was prompted by the escalating prices of commodities.
However, Acuram argued that the administration lacks genuine consultation from the stakeholders of the University especially the students who will be most affected of the increase.
“For one, they failed to post a public notice that a consultation regarding the increase will take place,” Acuram said.
He said that participants to the supposed consultation were limited to less than 15 participants coming from the college student government, council of student organizations, council of fraternities and sororities and the supreme faculty council.
“Worse, there was no audited financial statement that was shown to us to present where the increase in tuition last year went,” Acuram said.
CHEd Memo Order No. 14 ensures that copies of the school’s latest audited financial statement and tuition utilizations must be furnished to the student representatives during consultations.
“In this case however, there was no financial statement presented to us,” Acuram said.
Political Science student Winston Concoles, who is also the Kabataan coordinator, said if the proposed tuition hike is approved the UM students would have to pay P325 per unit upon enrollment from P275 per unit last year.
“We are faced with the yearly increase in tuition and we hold the CHED accountable for it because it is their mandate to regulate increases. But we don’t see CHED favoring the students instead they are favoring Higher Education Institutions (HEIs),” Concoles said.
“CHED seems to institutionalize the annual increase without due consideration that Filipino students and their families cannot afford such increases because of the increasing gap between the price of education and the capacity of the Filipinos to spend on it,” Apat said.
“Their inutility and submissiveness of CHED to abusive private Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) has cost sweat and blood of Filipino students clamoring for accessible education,” Karla Hyasmind Apat, the party list vice president for Mindanao, said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.
Apat cited the current proposal of the local University of Mindanao (UM) administration to increase their tuition and miscellaneous fees by 11.36%.
Davin Acuram, president of the College Student Government, said the school administration reasoned out that the tuition fee increase was prompted by the escalating prices of commodities.
However, Acuram argued that the administration lacks genuine consultation from the stakeholders of the University especially the students who will be most affected of the increase.
“For one, they failed to post a public notice that a consultation regarding the increase will take place,” Acuram said.
He said that participants to the supposed consultation were limited to less than 15 participants coming from the college student government, council of student organizations, council of fraternities and sororities and the supreme faculty council.
“Worse, there was no audited financial statement that was shown to us to present where the increase in tuition last year went,” Acuram said.
CHEd Memo Order No. 14 ensures that copies of the school’s latest audited financial statement and tuition utilizations must be furnished to the student representatives during consultations.
“In this case however, there was no financial statement presented to us,” Acuram said.
Political Science student Winston Concoles, who is also the Kabataan coordinator, said if the proposed tuition hike is approved the UM students would have to pay P325 per unit upon enrollment from P275 per unit last year.
“We are faced with the yearly increase in tuition and we hold the CHED accountable for it because it is their mandate to regulate increases. But we don’t see CHED favoring the students instead they are favoring Higher Education Institutions (HEIs),” Concoles said.
“CHED seems to institutionalize the annual increase without due consideration that Filipino students and their families cannot afford such increases because of the increasing gap between the price of education and the capacity of the Filipinos to spend on it,” Apat said.
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