EDITORIAL - Costly education

Summer is also graduation time, and the news isn’t good for many of the country’s high school Class of 2015. Lawmakers studying the education budget estimate that three out of five high school graduates cannot make it to college due to financial difficulties.

In March 2013, behavioral science freshman Kristel Tejada, 16, took her own life following her inability to raise funds for her tuition at the University of the Philippines-Manila. Since then at least two similar cases have been reported in other schools outside Metro Manila.

Several higher learning institutions have relaxed their rules on tuition payments, but there are simply too many families that can’t afford the cost of tertiary education. Economic hardships force students to start dropping out of school as early as third grade in this country, despite the fact that basic education is free.

Education gets the lion’s share of the annual national budget after debt payments, but the amount is rarely enough. Even after Tejada’s suicide focused national attention on the problem, UP still lacks funding. The insufficiency is keenly felt even at the Philippine General Hospital where UP students of medicine, nursing and related courses undergo internship.

This year the government is allotting P3.5 billion for scholarships in 112 state universities and colleges while the Commission on Higher Education has P2.2 billion more as financial assistance for students. The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority has P2 billion for its training and work scholarship program.

Lawmakers are currently deliberating on proposals to increase funding for tertiary education scholarships. Apart from the higher appropriation, schemes can be implemented to make it easier for students from low-income households to pay for their education. Access to soft loans and study-now-pay-later schemes are among the possibilities that can be implemented quickly. These will allow more high school graduates to pursue higher education, and prevent a repeat of the despondency that claimed the life of Kristel Tejada.