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Congressional probe on excessive tuition pushed

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya – Rep. Carlos Padilla of this province’s lone congressional district urged a probe on irregular and questionable collection of fees from students in public secondary schools throughout the country.

Padilla, who had sought a similar congressional investigation last year through House Resolution No. 220, said the excessive fees and seemingly endless contributions being charged by most government-run secondary schools were an additional burden to parents who mostly come from the country’s poor sector.

Padilla said the excessive fees run against the principle that led to the enactment of the Free Public Secondary Education Act of 1988 or Republic Act No. 6655, which he and Sen. Edgardo Angara co-authored.

He filed the resolution, already calendared in Congress, because of complaints from parents of public high school students regarding fees that they said were already beyond their capacity to pay.

The spirit and intent of the Free High School Education Act, he said, is to widen the opportunities of young Filipinos, especially the poor, to avail of secondary education without burdening them and their parents with tuition fees and other excessive payments, disguised as school-related expenditures.

“We still continue to hear numerous complaints of excessive fees in public schools, not only in high schools but also in the elementary school level, over and above those mandated by the national government,” he said.

Padilla said many of the fees charged in excess of the allowable fees – like Red Cross, Girl and Boy Scouts of the Philippines membership fees – were passed through resolutions of Parent Teacher Community Associations.

The congressman also cited instances where teachers or their superiors charged excessive fees for school projects, including those levied on graduating students as souvenirs of their stay in the school.

Among the fees being exacted from parents of public high school students were monthly dues, contributions for the payment of monthly electric bills incurred by the school, as well as class room and restroom maintenance fees, all of which sometimes add up to P100-200 per month.

“We have not even mentioned the special contributions when there are visitors and when the schools are made to house visiting athletes during athletic competitions,” Padilla said. -- CL