9 Caraga schools get incentives for not hiking tuition

BUTUAN CITY — There’s good news for the nine private higher education institutions in the Caraga region which did not seek tuition increases this school year.

President Arroyo, through the regional office of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), has announced that the Office of the President would extend financial assistance to all nine private schools.

Dr. Joanna Cuenca, CHED’s Caraga director, said she has received a memorandum from the Office of the President, through CHED, announcing the incentives.

She told reporters yesterday that although the amount of financial assistance is still under wraps, the nine schools would certainly get what Malacañang has promised them.

Six of the nine schools are located in this city. They are the Agusan Institute of Technology (AIT), Corjesu Computer College, St. Peter College Seminary, ACLC AMA Computer College, Sunrise College, and the Balite Institute of Technology (BIT).

The three others are the West Agusan Colleges in Kitcharao, Agusan del Norte; Surigao del Sur Colleges in Barobo, Surigao del Sur; and the St. Michael College of Caraga in Cantilan, Surigao del Sur.

Cuenca said Mrs. Arroyo herself was very happy that these institutions, which cater mostly to students coming from poor and middle class families, did not apply for tuition increases.

Meanwhile, Cuenca said CHED disapproved the applications of seven other schools seeking tuition increases beyond the 7.6 percent ceiling.

Out of the total 53 higher education institutions in the Caraga region, four are state colleges with 13 campuses scattered across Surigao del Sur, Surigao del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Agusan del Norte and Butuan City.

The Surigao del Sur Polytechnic State Colleges (SSPSC) has six campuses, while the Northern Mindanao State Institute of Technology (NORMSIST) has two — one in Ampayon, Butuan City, which got the highest number of enrollees last year, and the annex campus in Cabadbaran, Agusan del Norte.

The Agusan State College for Agriculture Technology in Bunawan, Agusan del Sur is the only agriculture college in Caraga.

Despite the region being groomed as the "timber corridor of the Philippines" because it supplies 65 to 70 percent of the country’s lumber needs, Caraga has no school for agro-forestry.

NORMSIST, like the SSPSC, has applied for state university status but the application is still pending in Congress.

Compared with last year’s enrolment, however, CHED expects the number of enrollees this school year to be relatively lower.

"We have received reports from the field that compared to last year, many of the schools are experiencing a decrease in enrollment," Cuenca said.

Like the rest of the schools nationwide, those in Caraga need more classrooms, teachers and facilities.

Isidro Biol, spokesman of the Department of Education (DepEd) regional office, told newsmen that as of last year, Caraga needed 2,082 teachers, 1,409 classrooms and 50,924 desks or armchairs to serve 358,035 elementary and 149,582 high school students.

For this year, Biol said they have yet to receive reports of shortages from the region’s 1,326 barangays, 70 municipalities and three cities.

He expressed hope that the region’s local governments would assist in addressing these problems.