By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz & Butch Fernandez
Conclusion
REAFFIRMING support for the government’s tuition-free policy in state universities and colleges (SUCs), senators unanimously voted to allocate P8 billion in the 2017 national budget to facilitate its implementation.
Sen. Sherwin T. Gatchalian, who initiated the move to institutionalize the SUC subsidy when he was still serving as Valenzuela City congressman in 2015, refiled his original House Bill 5905 as Senate Bill 198, detailing his proposal to abolish tuitions in all SUCs.
Once enacted into law, the Free Higher Education Act (Fhea) will “ensure universal access” to higher education, says Gatchalian, who sits as vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Education, Arts and Culture.
Even as the Senate is still deliberating on his bill, Gatchalian reported his colleagues voted to increase the budget of the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) in the Senate version of the 2017 General Appropriations Act (GAA), from P10.4 billion to P18.7 billion. He said the fund will cover not just the free-tuition plan in SUCs, but also provide additional incentives and other grants.
He confirms that the funds, allocated by special provision as the Higher Education Support Fund (HESF), will be administered by guidelines and procedures to be issued by the CHEd and the Department of Budget and Management in consultation with SUCs.
Permanent reality
GATCHALIAN said he intends to “closely monitor the utilization of the HESF in order to hold the CHEd accountable for its legal duty under the 2017 GAA to use these funds in furtherance of the free-tuition policy.”
The senator clarifies that Congress still needs to pass the FHEA to make the free-tuition policy in SUCs “a permanent reality for the millions of young learners who will depend on public education to get their college degree in the coming years.”
In sponsoring SB 1304, also known as “An Act Providing for a Full Tuition Subsidy for Students Enrolled in State Universities and Colleges, and Appropriating Funds Thereof,” Gatchalian was joined by Sens. Bam Aquino IV, Joseph Victor E. Ejercito, Juan Edgardo M. Angara, Loren B. Legarda and Minority Leader Ralph G. Recto, as coauthors.
“Free tuition in state universities and colleges is not a novel idea in the Philippines,” Gatchalian said. “It’s been around for decades, driven by the frustration of generations of student-activists who have taken to the streets to clamor for the government’s help in combatting gross inequality in educational access at the tertiary level.”
The senator admitted “these courageous students inspired me to dig deeper into the possibility of instituting a tuition-free system in SUCs back when I was still a congressman, culminating in the filing of the original [FHEA] as HB 5905 on July 6, 2015, during the 16th Congress.”
Progressive nation
MEANWHILE, authors of the full free tertiary education bills at the Lower House said educated people are the face of a progressive nation.
Rep. Alfred D. Vargas of the Fifth District of Quezon City said a government that provides sustainable and quality education to its citizens leads the nation to a bright future, as it is the best weapon to fight the poverty.
“The system of free public education in the Philippines has long been in existence, as established by the Malolos Constitution and RA 6655 for basic and secondary [education],” Vargas said. “However, tertiary education in SUCs has never been fully subsidized despite the yearly increase from the national budget for education.” He added that the government budget allocated for it remained the lowest among the three and so has become a hindrance for some with insufficient family income to enter and finish college.
“Education has a high impact on income and employment,” Vargas added. “A college graduate can be compensated twice or even thrice compared to a high-school graduate ,and this difference is a good reason to invest in tertiary education.”
Discouraging factor
REP. Vilma Santos-Recto of the Sixth District of Batangas said in 2014 the estimated annual government cost per student in an SUC is at an average of P21,000.
Santos-Recto said the cost drives SUCs to internally generate their own income through the collection of tuition and through grants and donations, among others, to sustain the cost of their operations.
She added that the income collected by 114 SUCs nationwide from tuition amounted to P7.9 billion, while other income collected from students totaled P4.7 billion.
“Tuition that form part of students’ out-of-pocket expenses for their college education range from as low as P12 to as high as P1,000 per unit and are expected to increase further to adjust for inflation,” Santos-Recto said. “These fees become one of the compelling reasons that discourage some students to pursue and finish tertiary education.”
Landmark legislation
GATCHALIAN recalls that during the 17th Congress, the idea of free tuition in SUCs has caught fire, with strong support in both houses of the legislature, noting that “in the House of Representatives, 18 congressmen have filed bills inspired by the idea of providing free college education to qualified students.”
In the Senate, Gatchalian reported that senators were determined to push for an P8-billion “budget insertion” to fund the free-tuition plan.
“And now, just seven short months into the First Regular Session, this worthy piece of legislation—which would institutionalize free SUC tuition once and for all—has already made it to the Senate floor after one-fourth of our membership filed bills pushing for free public college education.”
Once passed into law, Gatchalian said the measure would be a landmark reform in higher education, which will give life to the Constitution’s lofty promise to “protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality education at all levels”.
Gatchalian cites estimates generated from the 2014 Annual Poverty Indicators Survey, which notes 54 percent of college-aged youth—from ages 16 to 21—are not in school.
“Given population estimates extrapolated from the 2010 National Census, this figure translates to approximately 6.4 million youths,” he said. “If we look closer at the data, we can see that 29.77 percent of these youth disclosed that they are not in school because of the high cost of education.”
Financial constraints
GATCHALIAN said an additional 23.99 percent indicated they are not in school because they are either employed or looking for work.
“These figures suggest that as many as 3.4 million college-aged Filipinos were robbed of the opportunity to pursue further studies due to the prohibitively high cost of education,” he said. “Using estimates generated from Census 2010 and APIS 2014 data, we can see that as many as 3.4 million Filipinos aged 16 to 21 have dropped out of school because of financial constraints.”
Inalienable right
GATCHALIAN asserts that “as lawmakers and representatives of the people, we must take decisive action to uphold and defend the Filipinos’ inalienable right to pursue a college education.”
He added “an underprivileged student’s right to education should not be made dependent upon the generosity of charitable individuals or the patronage of politicians. We must address the issue head-on by institutionalizing a mechanism which will ensure full access to higher education for all generations of Filipinos to come.”
The Senator stressed the importance of ensuring full access to higher education, saying its potential to build greater equality within Philippine society, becomes even clearer once we observe the empirical relationship between educational and economic outcomes.
Image credits: Stephanie Tumampos