Filipino students light candles to form the word ‘Justice,’ during a symbolic protest following an apparent suicide by a student of the University of the Philippines (UP), in Manila yesterday.
Manila Times/Manila
Students from various public and private universities and colleges staged a protest, by walking out of their classes yesterday.
In a statement, the militant youth group Kabataan party-list said hundreds of students walked of their classes to signify their growing discontent against the “decrepit” education system in the country.
“Youth and students from various schools showed their growing discontent with an educational system that has increasingly burdened many families in the country, an education system that has allowed deregulated tuition, an educational system that led to the death of a fellow state scholar,” Kabataan President Terry Ridon, said in a statement.
Ridon was referring to Kristel Tejada, the University of the Philippines (UP)-Manila freshman who took her own life after she was forced to file a leave of absence when she was unable to pay her tuition fee.
In the university, students walked out of their classes at 11am and converged in the College of Arts and Sciences along Padre Faura. Students also stormed the Philippine General Hospital—where the UP-Manila administration is meeting the faculty regarding Tejada’s death—to demand accountability on the part of the university’s administration.
Also, in the main campus of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) in Santa Mesa, Manila, students walked out of their classes at about 3pm to continue their week-long “black” protest against new and higher miscellaneous fees approved by the PUP administration this month.
However, amid mounting calls for the government to regulate tuition fee increases, a ranking official from the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) admitted that suspending tuition fee hikes is easier said than done.
Higher Education executive director Julito Vitriolo said tuition increases could be suspended only if the school violated a rule regarding this.
“Unfortunately preventing tuition hike is quite difficult unless there is a violation; for example, there was no consultation,” Vitriolo said in an interview to GMA 7’s Unang Hirit programme.
Tejada’s death has sparked outrage among student and militant organisations and reignited discussions about alleged repressive tuition fee increases by universities and colleges, including those run by the state.
The CHED official, however, said Tejada’s case was isolated.
“This was the first case and it was surprising because if we look at it, it is possible that (her inability to pay tuition) was not the real cause of her suicide,” Vitriola said. He said the tuition fee increases are usually for the teachers’ yearly salary increase or other renovations in the school to improve service.
However, in case it is proven that the school is not using its funds for those purposes, then there may be a tuition rollback.
Yesterday, Blesilda Tejada, Kristel’s mother, thanked the students who sympathised with the family and showed their support for Kristel by conducting protests against tuition fee hikes.
Blesilda said that although she’s glad that there are some people who wanted change to prevent another case like her daughter’s, she is also sad that some protesters are becoming violent.
The administration of the PUP’s main campus in Santa Mesa said that they are saddened that students had to burn their desks.
“We don’t have a big budget. I am saddened and I hope that this won’t happen again. We are trying to do everything to improve the quality of education in this university,” Dr Emmanuel de Guzman, PUP president, said.
Several senatorial candidates expressed their disappointment over the death of Tejada.
Rep Teodoro “Teddy” Casiño of Bayan Muna party-list said greater funding for the education sector, especially for state colleges and universities, is needed to prevent another case like that of Tejada’s.
Casino believes that the administration of UP-Manila should be partly blamed because it has failed to provide assistance to Tejada.
“They should have extended the loan and not forced her to take leave from schooling. If you deny a student her education, in effect, you deny her future,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mayor Edward Hagedorn of Puerto Princesa City, Palawan province said that besides giving financial assistance to students who are experiencing financial problems, the schools and universities should also intensify their counselling for students so that they can make assessments of the mental state and health of the students.
On the other hand, lawyer Samson Alcantara, who has vowed economic reforms when he gets elected to the Senate, said that a possible solution for these cases is the setting up of teachers and student banks that could provide loans, not only for students experiencing financial problems but also to academicians who are in need of money.
“The cost of education is really quite high. The income of the government should be channelled more towards education,” Alcantara said.
Senatorial candidate and Rep Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito-Estrada of San Juan City, meanwhile, is pushing for the abolition of the university’s Socialised Tuition and Financial Assistance Programme because of its alleged failure to deliver aid to poor students.
“Along with our efforts to have a steady increase in government subsidy, it is now our desire to bring back the old UP-policy on tuition fee that really caters to the iskolar ng bayan,” said Ejercito, who is running under the United Nationalist Alliance.
Ejercito said the state-run university is no longer a university for the poor because majority of its students are wealthy.
He claimed that “90% of UP students now belong to Class A, B, C, and that only 10% belongs to Class D and E.”
Tejada was under ‘D’ classification, which meant that she had to pay 7,500 pesos in tuition every semester.
Prior to her death, Tejada’s parents had appealed to the university officials to amend her bracket assignment to ‘E,’ which would enable her to get free education and even receive a stipend.