‘Education a business venture, not a right’

EDITORIAL

The education has turned into a business venture rather than a basic right, according to student and militant groups who said with start of classes, students who don’t have the means won’t make it through college due to poverty and exorbitant tuition.

The groups called once again on the government to institute sweeping reforms in the education sector to make education available to all. 

Youth groups led by Kabataan Partylist, National Union of Students of the Philippines, League of Filipino Students, Anakbayan, and other groups earlier marched to Mendiola blasting the President for “failing to address the worsening education crisis midway into his presidency. The youth’s midterm report card for PNoy bears a glaring red “F” mark on all five key areas, including education, social services, human rights, poverty alleviation, and employment.”

“Three years into the Aquino presidency, the same problems remain – and even worsened. Millions of families continue to be mired in poverty, while millions of youth greeted the school opening outside their campuses, unable to enrol due to financial constraints,” said Kabataan Partylist president Terry Ridon.

Ridon, a lawyer, said in a press statement “millions of students returned to their schools only to find the same old education problems brought about by years of underfunding for education – shortages in facilities, skyrocketing matriculation, and for students in basic education, additional burden through the full-blown implementation of the K-12 program.”

Meanwhile, student groups also denounced the Commission on Higher Education’s approval of new and higher rates in 354 colleges and universities nationwide.

“We fought the new spate of unjustified fee increases in all branches of the government – the executive through CHED, the legislative branch through filing the Tuition Regulation Bill in the 15th Congress, and the judiciary through the petition we filed that sought for a temporary restraining order for the said increases,” Ridon said.

“Yet we have seen that such legal actions can only do so much. The SC even brushed aside our petition due to a mere technicality, while Congress failed to pass the Tuition Regulation Bill. While we plan to continue our legal battle in both the high court and Congress, the youth affirms today that we cannot solely rely purely on the legal front.”