Tuition hikes must be allowed

Tuition hikes must be allowed

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Published on Thursday, 06 June 2013 00:00

Written by AMADO P. MACASAET

By A Web design Company

‘The educational system in both public and private schools has long begun to rot. The solution as far as private schools are concerned may be found in raising tuition fees.’

(Note: This piece was written a day after the Commission on Higher Education said tuition hikes should be decided by the Supreme Court. The tribunal has since denied a petition to junk the CHED-approved hikes on the ground that the petitioners had not exhausted all administrative remedies.)

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The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) said late last week that the question of the petition of colleges and universities to raise tuition must be left to the Supreme Court. 

To a layman like me, nothing in this issue borders on the question of law. It is a question of appreciating the facts. Therefore the dispute is not within the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court which does not try facts. 

The Court’s only function is to interpret the Constitution and the laws. 

The question of the petition for higher tuition fees properly belongs to the CHED. It is not a bad idea for the commission to conduct an independent audit of the finances of all colleges and universities asking for higher fees. 

These institutions must earn enough not just to make a profit but to be able to hire more competent professors in all fields of discipline. The money cannot come from anywhere else but the parents of the students. 

There is no other way except for the state to expand its wholly-owned colleges and universities which should require nominal tuition fees but pay the teachers a handsome salary to attract the competent ones.  This is the only way of ensuring that high school graduates may get a chance at having a sound college education. 

This space repeatedly asserts that the educational system should encourage even elementary school graduates to learn a trade or two. Learning electrical repair, automotive mechanics, carpentry, or handicraft requires less brain, less money. 

It is the adept hands and dedication to work that gives a better chance to high school graduates whose parents do not have enough money to pay tuition fees of their children. 

We have to learn the lesson from having more than one half million registered nurses who are jobless. The few who find employment work in casinos as card dealers, in call centers and BPOs. Some are care givers. The rest are jobless. 

A famous British essayist said about four centuries ago, “If you find education expensive, try ignorance.” Higher education has a cost. The cost does not bother the rich although sometimes rich children are less fit for higher education than the poor. 

That is the very reason the poor should learn some arts and trades.  

The CHED should go out of its way to seek out poor high school graduates who have the brains but whose parents do not have the money to send them to universities or colleges. Not even in the provinces. 

For the record, De La Salle University has a very large number of scholars who are children of poor parents. The University of the Philippines, the Polytechnic University and many other state-owned colleges accept scholars. 

The fees in these schools are remarkably smaller. Small fees mean a lot to parents who practically starve themselves out to see a son or daughter with high level of intellect to finish a college course.

Where does he go if the state does not help him or her? 

The question of higher fees should be allowed on condition that the additional money to be raised from the students is to be used to hire more competent teachers. Otherwise, the petition for higher fees should be flatly denied.

In this regard, the Supreme Court should not have any jurisdiction over petition for higher tuition fees. Not only because it will try facts.

More important, costs of everything are rising although government statistics say the upward movement of prices has been slow at about 3 percent a year. 

Here we might apply what Disraeli, the famous British philosopher and author, once said:  “Lies, damn lies and statistics.”

Lower tuition fees barely enough to leave the school owners a modest profit sacrifice the quality of education. Therefore the fees must be raised to improve the education of college students. 

Otherwise graduates who must earn a living by any means end up as taxi drivers, waiters (most waiters these days are graduates of hotel and restaurant management and tourism), handyman … you name it. They are there.

The lazy bones loaf and continue to depend on their parents.

We must be in complete agreement with the reality that higher education is not exclusively for those who can afford it.

The fees in better schools, particularly the non-profit, tax-exempt Catholic educational institutions schools are excessive for the poor. But their graduates find it easier to get a job than those who finished a degree course in a school of inferior standards. The sharp mind of a poor high school graduate cannot get sharper if he or she enrolls in a school not known for being competent in any field of discipline. 

The Supreme Court cannot pass judgment on the intellect of a student.

If the sharp mind can get sharper from a school that hires more competent teachers because it can afford to pay higher salaries from money raised from the parents of students, the educational system will be able to help raise young minds in a way that fits the needs of the times. 

The simple fact is public education has hopelessly deteriorated as a result of the bloated population. In my time in the late forties, there were only about 20 pupils in my class in Grade I. 

Today, the average number is probably higher than 50. There is a shortage of classrooms for first graders every school year. Many classroom teachers are not dedicated to education. 

They took the less expensive education course because of assurance of landing a job considering the continued shortage of teachers. The educational system in both public and private schools has long begun to rot. 

The solution as far as private schools are concerned may be found in raising tuition fees.

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