Free Tuition In Stage Colleges.
Free Tuition.Elections season is not just about seeing various advertisements and paraphernalia posted anywhere in the street but it is also about hearing promises from politicians which of course could sounds as a delight to others.
With the candidates vying for the national seats, what can the presidential candidates do for higher education especially to those students who can’t afford to enter college?
Campaigning for education is definitely a strong ground to attract voters, so as expected they talk much about how they could contribute to the students who would want to pursue a bachelor’s degree especially now that our country is into the full implementation of the K to 12 program.
There are a lot of state colleges around the country to which parents could send their children too, but although it is subsidized by the government students are still required to pay the remaining fees.
As much as the higher education sector is concerned, the biggest education reform yet has impact to the higher education itself. But there are politicians who promise to lay out plans regarding free tuition in state colleges and the push for higher budget.
While so, there are others who promise only the granting of more scholarships and increasing the budget for state universities and colleges so that the tuition would be much lesser.
There is a running presidential candidate who promises the same and there are at least to other senatorial candidates who will also push for the free tuition fees in all SUCs.
But according to former national treasurer Leonor Briones, the proposal could be far from achieving.
“We follow what the Constitution says, that the highest level of expenditure should be for education. But is it within the recommended standard, international standards that so many percent of your GDP has to be spent for education?” Briones said.
Briones said that the country don’t have the resources for the program.
According to the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Executive Director Julito Vitriolo, the free tuition policy in the SUCs without corresponding support to deserving private “HEIs would be tantamount to a de facto state policy of cutting down private HEIs who may not survive both the exodus students and faculty.”
Vitriolo added that the proposal would go a long way as private HEIs dominate higher education sector in terms of number.