‘Iskolar ng Bayan’ Law won’t address drop-out rates

BEHIND THE SCENES

Alfred P. Dizon

(King CrisPulman, spokesperson of  Anakbayan-Cordillera writes this week’s piece.)

The new law that provides scholarship benefits to the top 10of the graduating class of public high schools will hardly make a denton the spiraling college drop-out rates in the Philippines, aparty-list lawmaker representing the youth said Tuesday.

President Benigno Aquino III has recently signed into law Republic Act 10648 or the Iskolar ng Bayan Act of 2014, a measure which mandates all state universities and colleges (SUCs) to provide automatic admission and scholarship to the top 10 graduating students of public high schools in the country. The said law is said to benefit
about 80,000 students annually.

“Providing state scholarships is a palliative solution to the growing inaccessibility and unaffordability of education, especially at the tertiary level. The new scholarship law will only cover a very small percentage of the 1.1 million students of our nation’s 110 SUCs. Forthe vast majority who won’t be covered by the law, the high cost of tuition and other school fees will remain as a great barrier to finishing their studies,” Ridon said.

The lawmaker added that RA 10648 will hardly make a dent on the spiraling drop-out rate in the country.

With the rising cost of education, government figures reveal that for every 100 students who enter Grade 1, only 66 finish Grade 6, while only 43 will be able to finish high school. Of this number, only 23will be able to continue studying at the tertiary level and only 14 will graduate.

“Even if we introduce a state-sponsored scholarship program, the fact remains that even in our state schools, education has become grossly expensive,” Ridon explained.

The lawmaker cited data from the Department of Budget and Management which show that since President Aquino assumed office in 2010, both tuition and other school fees collected from students of SUCs have steadily increased, with collection from fees apart from tuition doubling in just four years.

In 2010, SUCs were able to collect a total of P5.3 billion fromtuition. By 2013, this amount increased by1.7 billion or 32 percent,to reach a staggering P7 billion. From 2010 to 2013, SUCs were able to collect a total of P24.7 billion in tuition fees.

Meanwhile, the total income of the country’s SUCs from other school fees almost doubled from P2.6 billion in 2010 to an eye-popping P4.1billion in 2013.All in all, the country’s public tertiary students shelled out a total of P38.3 billion in tuition and other school fees in the past four years.

“The Iskolar ng Bayan Law is the Aquino administration’s band-aidsolution to the rising cost of education.

This cunning administration is seemingly aiming to deflect outrage over the deregulated nature of education through scholarships, when what is truly needed is for the government to act on the skyrocketing tuition and other school fees,”

Ridon explained.The lawmaker, who also served as student regent of the University of the Philippines back in 2007, also lamented the fact that UP is not included in the ambit of the Iskolar ng Bayan Law.“The UP administration’s explanation for seeking exemption from the new law reveals how much these administrators value profit over access to education,” Ridon said.

“The bottom line is that state scholarships will not address the worsening state of public tertiary education, and can never justify the collection of higher fees in SUCs,” Ridon concluded.

Demonstrations and rallies against other school fees.