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CONFLICTING policy directives on tuition increase are
confusing college students and their parents.
The
Kabataan party-list group and the National Union of
Students of the Philippines (NUSP) slammed the
Commission on Higher Education (CHED) over the matter.
The CHED,
under Chairman Carlito Puno, earlier allowed a tuition
hike cap of 10 percent and suspended the earlier tuition
cap that was based on the inflation rate.
Student
groups claimed the timing of CHED’s recent pronouncement
is questionable, as it came out after schools have
already concluded their tuition hike consultations and
enrolment has started.
“This is
no different from the suspicious timing of the
suspension of the tuition cap in the middle of tuition
consultations in various private schools last February,”
a Kabataan statement said.
“In
fact, school owners have already taken advantage of the
suspension of the tuition cap to increase tuition beyond
the inflation rate.”
Kabataan
leaders said the group’s lawyers are preparing a
petition to the Supreme Court questioning CHED’s move to
suspend the tuition cap and asking for a temporary
restraining order on the implementation of approved
tuition hikes under CHED’s new tuition guidelines.
The
youth group also condemned what it called a “grand
conspiracy” between Puno, the Coordinating Council of
Private Educational Associations (Cocopea) and President
Arroyo with the suspension of the implementation of CHED
Memorandum Order 14 and subsequent amendments CMO 42 and
CMO 7— which provide for a cap on tuition and other fee
increases based on the prevailing inflation rate.
The
suspension of tuition cap came after Cocopea officials
met with President Arroyo in February when Puno turned
down the school owners’ demand for tuition fee increase
more than the current national inflation rate. |
