Student Protest Actions Loom: 452 schools nationwide hike tuition

The coming school year will be marked with a series of protest actions against tuition increases in private colleges and universities, the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) said yesterday.

Rey Asis, CEGP president, said 452 private colleges and universities nationwide have increased their tuition by an average of 20 percent.

"We expect this figure to increase because the deadline for tuition hikes is on May 31. The cost of education in our country is increasing to such a point that it is becoming unreachable for many Filipino youths," Asis said.

"The government must regulate tuition or we will produce a generation of illiterate Filipinos in the near future. Education has become a business in the country," he added.

Asis said students would not take the tuition adjustments sitting down, and would hold a series of mass actions when classes open next month.

For a starter, the CEGP will picket the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) office in Pasig City on Tuesday.

On Monday, student groups, backed by workers and women’s organizations, will hold a rally in Mendiola, Manila to denounce the unabated increases in tuition.

"We’ll not be alone in this fight. Other sectors will join us and we’ll call for the abolition of CHED because it is inutile in acting against schools which have increased their tuition illegally," Asis said.

Asis complained that last year, CEGP filed cases with CHED against 15 schools which increased their tuition, but nothing happened to the cases.

CHED Memorandum Circular No. 13 mandates schools to consult their students, faculty members and non-teaching personnel before effecting any tuition increase.

For school year 2001-2002, only 25 of the 452 schools which hiked their tuition, complied with the CHED memorandum.

Of the 452 schools, 106 are in Metro Manila. There are 1,153 colleges and universities nationwide.

CHED requires the consultation to ensure that 70 percent of the incremental proceeds of the increase will be used to adjust the salaries of teachers and non-teaching personnel.

CHED also requires that 20 percent of the increase be spent on school improvements, and the remaining 10 percent for "return of investment."

"Education has been commercialized in our country. More and more students are dropping out of school and some have not even reached college," Asis said.