Thursday, May 03, 2007 Editorials: Conflicting interests in schools
THE reported move to increase tuition this year of some 50 private secondary schools in the Central Visayas appears to plough right through a tightening money situation affecting most middle level families. Education department authorities averred that the number of schools may still rise as the deadline to petition for permit to increase the fees approaches on May 31.
The request ranges from five to 25 percent.The requests, however, would still have to pass through a study and review process the Department of Education has set to protect both the interest of the schools, which must maintain a level of education quality in their instruction, and the families of children, who desire to educate their kids in the best way they can at the a cost they can afford. Enrollees in private schools are presumed to belong to our social middle class.
But while most of them have incomes better than the average countryside inhabitant, who can afford to send their children only to public high schools, they are unable to keep up with rising cost of private high schools, which often goes up much faster than the average increase in middle family incomes. All too often, only the upper middle income families are able to send their children to upscale private religious secondary schools.
There was a time before World War II when private high schools were shunned by parents who would rather send their secondary school kids to the provincial and city high schools. But the ‘50s and the ‘60s show the radical decline in the quality of teachers of public high schools, graduates of the poor quality of education that came as products of newly opened private colleges and universities of the country.
The end of World War II unleashed an influx of young Filipinos who were bottled up by the war and sought to catch up on their education. They sparked a rush to open private higher education schools with poorly trained instructors. Then, even fresh high school graduates were made to teach in public elementary schools, whose graduates were later on educated in poorly-equipped colleges, and their graduates made to teach high schools.
Middle ground
Petitions for tuition increases cited the need to update equipment, facilities, and quality of teachers in order to improve the overall quality of the school’s instruction. The rationale behind the request to increase tuition is not only sound but highly valid in the face of our need to strengthen the quality of general education in the country. But then, this runs counter to the financial capability of most Filipino families.
The economy of the country has not improved strongly enough to make the average middle level family afford increases in fees of private education. While most parents would like to give truly quality education to their children, the cost for such “commodity” is beyond their reach at the moment. There is need to search for a middle ground.
