‘Wag pahirapan pagbabayad: DepEd, CHED urged to freeze tuition fee hikes amid pandemic

By Billy Begas

Militant lawmakers have jointly filed a resolution urging the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to impose moratorium on tuition and other school fee increases amid historic health and economic crises.

The lawmakers said the implementation of distance learning has left school facilities unused “yet there are educational institutions that continue to charge other school fees such as Related Learning Experience (RLE) fee, on-the-job training (OJT) fee, cultural fee, gym fee, energy fee, dental fee, and laboratory fees.”

They said that there are educational institutions that charge new fees for printed learning modules in addition to existing rates of tuition and other school fees, and the lack of transparency as to how collected fees are being utilized raises questions among students and their parents.

For Academic Year 2020-2021, DepEd approved 654 out of 901 tuition hike applications.

For the next school year, CHED has issued interim guidelines on the processing of applications to increase tuition and other school fees “which merely adjusts the timeline that educational institutions must follow should they intend to raise fees.”

According to House Resolution 1722, among the higher educational institutions planning to hike fees for AY 2021-2022 are Holy Angel University, Saint Louis University and De La Salle University.

“Any school fee increase will worsen the suffering of families who deal with the already high prices of goods and services, meager salaries, and insufficient pandemic subsidies,” the resolution read.

The resolution was authored by Kabataan Rep. Sarah Jane Elago, ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro, Bayan Muna Representatives Carlos Isagani Zarate, Ferdinand Gaite and Eufemia Cullamat and Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas.

Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)