Tuition fee increase

I am deeply saddened by the realities that haunt the average Filipino student nowadays. The cost of education is now so lavish that it forces students to drop out or gamble to the cheaper but incompetent schools for diplomas’ sake.

In line with the recent rising of the commodities of living, education too has skyrocketed from affordable to extravagant. It is almost unbearable for an average Filipino family to cope up with a 250-300% percent increase on tertiary education cost this school year and I am fearing that this year’s sudden and untimely tuition fee increase would increase the number of out of school youth within our country due to the incapability to finance tertiary schooling, thus, would become again a grave problem if these youths will subject to delinquencies.

Our school had not increased in it’s per/unit price, but who knows, we may be waking up next morning and knowing the worst that our school too has implemented this kind of inequity.

Rumor has it that USM will have the tuition fee increase in the near future, maybe next year, or the next two years, but whatever moves our school will take will dictate its fate as the once Affordable and quality school.

The reaction of enraged college students all through out the Philippines was heard in this past month’s protest-rallies, saying that education is a right and condemns the anti-student treatment of the GRP.

The ordinary Filipino student is now torn between choices of a Private school education or an SUC’s type of education, but it’s hard to choose now, because both are subject to tuition fee increase that leaves their Fathers and mothers flat broke with the biggest slice of their seemingly mediocre salary going to the educational cost of their children.

The government is said to have no power in controlling this kind of serious issue, CHED announced that they can only appeal to their (private school owners) social responsibility not to hike their tuition fee too much. And this would mean that government SUC’s would witness a flooding of transferees form the private school sector from now on.

I would like to suggest to the concerned persons of this sudden TOFI tuition fee increase, that if you want to get this done, you must first do your obligation of raising the standard of living of our parents, so that they will have money to send us to college.

We understand that the world has changed, and we also understand that you need this tuition hikes to compensate your academic maintenance of schools, but your hasty acts will cause catastrophe to the majority of students who came from the bottom of the middle class line in our caste-like system of society.

This is a plea to the Philippine government to realize the huge subsidy that is allocated for education; we can’t merely feel the improvements that you always propose and yet you just sit there and wait for your large salaries.

It is really dangerous to run a “dumb” country, its even more dangerous if the ones who are tasked to do their jobs to educate, does the dumb thing of neglecting the educational crisis of the status quo.

Education is important, who said it is not? It is our mere escape to our nations lingering poverty, it is the sole treasure that our parents can give us, and they are willing to shed blood and sweat just to send us to one school where they could happily see us finish. It’s sad to see that tertiary education nowadays has become commercial, public schools that are supposed to tend to the needs of the Filipino students, concentrate now to the profit of what they can get in return of their decreasing level of proficiency.

I say that this whole Tuition fee increase is no doubt a step back to the development of our ever beloved country; they always say that we are growing economically; we are not, the only thing that’s economically growing, is the politicians’ wallets and pockets. How can they ever change the incompetent educational system? If they themselves cant abstain from their thievery? How can the “pag-asa ng bayan” change the nation, if they are not able to have proper education due to poverty?

Tuition fee increase makes them even poorer, makes us even more burdened.