Students protest high school fees, low education budget in school opening

Press Release
June 10, 2008

The League of Filipino Students (LFS) and other militant youth groups marked school opening today with various protests in major unversities and campuses. Students from UP, PUP, UST, UE, FEU, TIP, Mapua, PLM, and many others, held rallies and noise barrage activities to protest
increases in tuition and other school fees this year and low government spending in education.

According to LFS national chairperson Vencer Crisostomo, tuition rates in private tertiary institutions in NCR have doubled since President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo assumed office, from an average of P391.34 per unit in SY 2000-2001 to the current NCR average of P855.20 per unit, or by 118.53%. The national average meanwhile increased by 69.81% from P257.41 in 2000 to P437.10 per unit in 2006. This year, 378 out of 1,800 private schools nationwide have increased their tuition rates by an average of 10%.

Crisostomo said that due to the government’s refusal to regulate tuition rates in private schools, tertiary education has been abused by “capitalist vultures,” turning campuses into profit-making enterprises by collecting “unjust and exorbitant fees” from parents and students.

He cited as example private schools owned by business tycoons which are consistently on the list of the nation’s top 1,000 moneymakers, raking hundreds of millions of pesos in profits annually.

“Arroyo is to blame for the high tuition rates at present. She allowed the big capitalist-educators to increase their tuition rates unjustly year after year, despite clear provisions of the law stating that the government should ensure affordable education at all levels and should impose reasonable regulation,” he said, citing Art. XIV, Sec. 1 and Sec. 4 of the 1987 Constitution.

Crisostomo also said that government subsidy for education is “ridiculously low” as the 2008 education budget of P149 billion equates to only around P12 per day for each Filipino youth aged 6-24 years old.

He also said that education spending under the Arroyo government have steadily declined, from 17.4% of the national budget in 2001 down to only 13.9% in 2006. Also, allotment fell from 3.3% of the GNP in 2001, to only 2.19% this year, farther than ever from the UNESCO recommended 6%.

“The Arroyo government has clearly been neglecting education since 2001. It has committed grave crimes against the education sector, the students and the youth. It is imperative for the students and youth, as classes resume, to renew the fight against Arroyo’s corruption and
tyranny, and fight for meaningful reforms in the education system and society,” he said.

The LFS vows to renew and strengthen the anti-Arroyo protest movement as school opens and warns of school walk-outs and student strikes nationwide in the coming weeks. #

Reference: Vencer Crisostomo, LFS National Chairperson, 09228262606, 09157991059