BY BULATLAT

Amid the economic crisis, a legislator called on the the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to provide guidelines to stop any tuition increase for school year 2009-2010.

Bayan Muna Representative Teodoro Casiño expressed this to CHED officials at the meeting jointly conducted by the House Committees on Higher and Technical Education and Basic Education and Culture yesterday.

Casiño said, ““In view of the economic recession and the stakeholders’ consultations on tuition increase held every February, the State must now exercise its regulatory powers to curtail the unabated increase in tuition and other school fees.”

Pending legislation that aim to regulate tuition and other school fees are House Bills 277, 1274, 1407, and 2440. Authors include House Deputy Minority Leaders Satur Ocampo and Darlene Antonino-Custodio,Reps. Casiño, Judy Syjuco (Iloilo), Luzviminda Ilagan and Liza Maza (Gabriela). The said bills seek to create a tuition and school fee regulatory board, among others.

Casiño said further, “Education is a fundamental right that more and more Filipino youth cannot enjoy due to worsening poverty and the failure of CHED and the Department of Education (DepEd) to curb the constant meteoric rise in tuition.”

Since 2003, tuition have increased by as much as 15 percent per year, with other fees rising at much higher rates, he said.

Youth and student leaders from the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP), League of Filipino Students (LFS), and Health Students’ Action (HSA) have expressed their full support for the said measures.

The CHED representative, meanwhile, welcomed the said measures to protect the rights of students and further disclosed that the commission is considering the proposals to freeze tuition hikes in academic year 2009-2010. (Bulatlat.com)

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