“The burden is on us. The Department of Education wants the teachers to be more creative and innovative in teaching. But we only had five days of training. Teaching materials and guidelines were not even provided.” Luisa Ramirez, grade 9 teacher
Teachers are very disappointed with DepED; they say its officials have focused more on hiding the problems under conjured illusions to make it seem everything is well in public schools, instead of addressing the problems head on.
Kabataan Partylist Rep. Terry Ridon filed House Resolution No. 1160 calling on the House Committee on Higher and Technical Education to investigate the incident and hold the Earist administration accountable for “repressing students whose sole crime is to practice their constitutionally-guaranteed rights to free expression, speech, and peaceable assembly.”
“Unfortunately, both CHED [Commission on Higher Education] and the Department of Education (DepEd) have miserably failed to curb the meteoric rise in tuition and other school fees. Their issuances and memorandum orders are inherently full of loopholes and appear merely to give the illusion that these agencies are actually doing something about the problem when the opposite is true.”
The average tuition in the National Capital Region (NCR) ranges from P20,600 ($472) to P36,650 ($841) for 21 units. The rates of increase are 3.5 to 10 percent in tuition and 300-percent in miscellaneous fees.
RELATED STORY | Uncertain future await youth due to incessant tuition hikes
The Philippines has the highest drop out rate in Southeast Asia.
Youth and students showed their disgust over tuition hikes not only in the streets but also on social media.
“We are aghast with Aquino’s statement that there is no budget to cover the salary increase knowing that a lot of government money was just used for ghost, anomalous and corrupt projects through the Priority Development Assistance Fund, Presidential Social Fund and other lump sum allocations.” – Alliance of Concerned Teachers
“The peace negotiations are important and it concerns every Filipino. Its result will directly affect our country and its immediate future.” – Act for Peace
“I am prepared for the consequences in defending students’ rights. As long as what you are fighting for is right, we should never give up the fight.” – James Bryan Deang, president of the NU Supreme Student Council
“Every year, skyrocketing tuition and miscellaneous fees have always been a burden to students of SUCs and private HEIs. Although there is an existing Ched guideline regarding tuition and school fee increases, the said memo is a toothless regulatory paper. Not only does it fail to genuinely regulate tuition and other school fees increases, it also allows automatic tuition increases for incoming freshmen students.” – National Union of Students of the Philippines
RELATED STORY | Student leaders lose scholarships for protesting tuition increases