Student activists protest cut in subsidies to state-run schools

MANILA, Philippines - The National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) bewailed yesterday a 13-percent cut in subsidies to state universities and colleges (SUCs) which the government plans to include in the 2010 budget.

NUSP national president Alvin Peters said the hefty reduction in financial support to SUCs proved once again that the government does not prioritize the youth and their development.

Peters noted that in the proposed 2010 National Expenditure Program (NEP) submitted by the Department of Budget Management, the budget allocated for SUCs dropped from P24.23 billion in 2009 to P21.03 billion next year.

He said the DBM also reduced the budget for capital outlay of SUCs by a “disturbing” 99 percent, from P2.9 billion in 2009 to P24.2 million in 2010. 

The capital outlay fund is the budget allocated for new buildings and procurement of equipment.

Peters said the decreasing budget for SUCs is illogical, considering the need to develop the country’s human resources.

He stressed that SUCs should be given priority since these are institutions where young Filipinos who want to get a college education turn to amid steep tuition in private schools.

Peters noted that the Arroyo administration had also failed to increase the allocation for the Department of Education in the 2010 budget.

“What is more, the government plans to retain its P6 budget per day per student in elementary and high school in 2010. It appears that the government’s view on quality and accessible education has gone completely haywire,” he said.

Kabataan party-list Rep. Raymond Palatino said there was a move by the government to force SUCs to impose higher fees to shift the burden of supporting SUCs to students.

Palatino said SUCs are being made to rely less on government subsidy and more on internally generated income in the form of tuition and other fees and privatization of assets. 

In the 2010 NEP, he noted that the bulk of SUCs’ projected income of P10.2 billion would be sourced from tuition of about P4.59 billion and other income from students amounting to P2.23 billion.

Unfortunately, the burden of financing tertiary education is placed on students, many of whom will be unable to afford it, Palatino said.

He said reducing the SUC budget would be “sadistic and ultimately anti-student” as more and more students are depending on SUCs. 

For school year 2009-2010, Commission on Higher Education enrolment data show a “migration” of students from private higher education institutions (HEIs) to SUCs as a result of the continuous rising costs of education in private tertiary institutions.

Palatino blamed the government’s Medium Term High Education Development Plan, which directs SUCs to “rationalize tuition by implementing the full cost of education in public HEIs.”

“It is clear that the government is in the framework of eventually relinquishing its responsibility to subsidize SUCs and public HEIs. It is abandoning its obligations to provide education to the Filipino youth,” he said.

“State schools are being treated no longer as national agencies entitled to sufficient government subsidy, but as income-earning and commercial entities. Students and the youth are no longer seen as future nation-builders, but as mere clientele for capitalist educators.” – Rainier Allan Ronda