IN a few months, the next school year will begin, but the proposed free-tuition legislation is still being discussed. One of the most recent developments was the joint position paper released by economic managers, basically stating that the proposed free-tuition policy will not be an efficient use of government funds.
In lieu of paying the tuition fees of undergraduate students in state universities and colleges (SUCs), Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III and Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno recommended the full funding of the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education (UniFAST). They said it is a “better alternative because it provides a more coherent and comprehensive framework to address the educational needs of the students and is better designed to ensure a more efficient and effective use of government funds”.
The economic experts cited several reasons, first of which is the fact that only 12 percent of the students in SUCs belong to the bottom 20 percent of the family-income classification. This means that government funding will largely be spent paying for tuition of students who may be able to afford to pay, anyway.
Another reason given was that tuition constitutes only one-third of the annual cost of attending college. Other expenses include living expenses and instructional materials. That said, the poor families would still be unable to send their children to college even if tuition were free, because it would still be difficult to raise the bigger chunk of money (two-thirds) needed to pay for a full college education.
Apart from these important issues, the economic managers are concerned about the possible exodus of students from private higher educational institutions toward the SUCs. This would have an effect on the quality of graduates and also affect the government’s budget.
“The budgetary support for free tuition will be difficult to sustain,” they said in their position paper. The SUCs would require about P28 billion from the government to cover the tuition of the 1.4 million students currently enrolled. If the enrolments increase in the coming years, this amount would still balloon substantially.
The UniFAST was established in 2014 through Republic Act 10687. Its task is to unify and harmonize all modalities of publicly funded Student Financial Assistance Programs (StuFAPs), like scholarships, grants-in-aid and student loans for tertiary education. The economic experts see it as a wiser, more prudent move to support UniFAST instead so it could do its job efficiently. They all agree that “the UniFAST is better designed to ensure a more efficient and effective use of government funds”.
The economic managers raised valid points our lawmakers need to consider before the legislation is passed. This issue definitely deserves thorough study since the nation’s budget is not that huge and we definitely need to be prudent about our spending priorities. Education is very important, more reason the limited money should go to those who need it most.
1 comment
Anyone can take a CLEP test which is one of the quickest ways to finish college with a legitimate degree. It’s administered by the College Board – the same company that does the SAT testing.