Student unrest hits Batanes’ only private school

BASCO, Batanes — The only private school in this province — the country’s smallest — is being threatened by student unrest over the school’s plan to raise tuition by at least 15 percent.

About 350 students of St. Dominic College staged a protest rally yesterday, demanding that the school’s financial records be scrutinized to determine if the planned tuition increase is justified. The school at present charges P120 per unit.

The students opted to stage the rally after their earlier efforts to discuss the matter with Sr. Mary Pauline Tejero, the school’s president, bogged down.

Albert Calagui and Russel Mina, leaders of the student-protesters, accused Tejero of violating the Manual of Regulations for Private Schools, which mandates that the school management should make consultations with the student council and alumni and faculty associations before enforcing a tuition hike.

"While we listened to the good sister, she refused to see our point," Calagui said.

Tejero, however, believes that the school, which has only 517 enrollees this semester, deserves a tuition increase.

"The last increase was in 1990. Besides, we are only asking for a 15 percent hike instead of the 20 percent authorized by law," she said.

In an apparent attempt to pacify the protesting students, Tejero urged them in a letter yesterday to reconsider their actions and attend a meeting on March 22.

"What does the good sister think of us?" Mina asked. "We are having our finals on March 20, and by March 22, most of the students who come from the island-municipalities of Itbayat and Sabtang, would have gone home by then."

Calagui said they are also complaining about what he described as the "obsession" of the school authorities "to channel their funds to infrastructure programs and nothing for the improvement of classroom instructions."

"Imagine, a school offering a Bachelor of Science in Commerce, major in Management and yet, not a single reference book on the course is available at the library," Calagui said.