Monday, June 09, 2008 Final warning sent against school fees By Elisabeth P. Baumgart Sun.Star Correspondent
ANY public school teacher caught collecting fees from students in the first month of classes will be immediately suspended, the Department of Education (DepEd) 7 warned yesterday.
“I called up superintendents since we anticipate some teachers will collect. I told them to get the names of the teachers and to get the name of the principal who allowed the collection because we will suspend them (for violating) DepEd Order 19, series of 2008,” said DepEd 7 Director Carolino Mordeno.
That order states that no fees should be collected from schoolchildren enrolling in pre-school and grades one to four during enrolment period and at any time during the school year.
It also prohibits the collection of any fees from grades five to six students during enrolment period and the first month of the school year.
School contributions from students may only be collected in the months of July or August.
DepEd allows collection from grade five to fourth year high school students.
The fees, however, can only be collected by the Parents, Teachers and Community Association (PTCA) and not the teachers or school heads themselves.
DepEd 7 Assistant Director Recaredo Borgonia added that even the PTCA collections have to be agreed upon by the majority and cannot be forced upon the students.
“There is no such thing as a compulsory contribution,” said Borgonia in an interview with Sun.Star Cebu.
Mordeno stressed that DepEd takes the issue of teachers collecting fees from students seriously and will suspend teachers and principals without giving them a second chance.
This was after DepEd received reports that schools were collecting fees from students for the payment of the schools’ electricity and water bills or in some cases, payment for photocopies and other school materials.
“Karun, wala na’y magpagahi ug ulo (Today, no one should think of defying the policy),” Mordeno told Sun.Star Cebu.
In order to fix the problem of schools collecting funds from students, DepEd has now allowed schools to access their allocated funds for their management and operating
expenses (MOEs).
Borgonia said that they have received a directive from the central office to inspect if schools have started to acquire their MOEs.
“The schools can pay for their operating expenses during the opening of classes and for the provision of Ids,” said Borgonia.
As ordered, identification cards (IDs) of the students should also be free and be charged to the school’s MOEs.
To further ensure that no school will collect fees from students, Mordeno said he has fielded supervisors from the regional office in all 15 divisions. (EPB)
