Sunday, May 11, 2008 Pay hike of Catholic school teachers depend on rate of tuition increase
TUITION fee hike being imposed by the Manila Archdiocesan and Parochial Schools Association (Mapsa) and the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) are being imposed whenever salary adjustment are implemented.
Monsignor Gerry Santos, head of CEAP said this following reports that Catholic and private schools are set to adjust this coming school year their tuition fee by two to 10 percent.
Fr. Santos explained that CEAP and Mapsa before imposing any tuition fee hike are considering several issues but primarily the salaries of their workers.
“Ang consideration ay sa mga salaries ng ating mga empleyado na nagtatrabaho sa mga Catholic schools e doon lang natin kinukuha sa tuition increase. So sa isang paaralan halimbawa for the past three or four years, hindi nagtataas ng tuition, hindi rin talaga nagtataas ng salaries o sweldo ang mga empleyado (The consideration for salary increase of the employees working in Catholic Schools is taken from the tuition increase. If a school for example a school did not implement any tuition increase for the last three or four years it means it did not implement a salary adjustment for the last three or four year to their employees), he said.
He added “kaya ang formula na ginagamit natin na ibinibigay nga ng gobyerno ng DepEd [Department of Education] ay 70 percent ang incremental increase pumupunta sa salaries and other wage related benefits at saka konting porsyento ay sa development programs ng schools, ang development programs ay yung improvement para naman ang ating education program ay at par with the standards ngayon ng ating gobyerno at ng nakararaming paaralan din para maging highly competitive at committed to excellence ang ating mga graduates at ang ating mga estudyante.”
The regional wage board in Metro Manila are set to issue wage order by May 15 to help workers cope with the rising cost of basic commodities and services and fuel.
But so far, Santos said they have no idea how many members of them are set to increase their tuition fee since it’s the board of trustees of the individual
schools belonging to Mapsa that decides on the matter.
“Mapsa is made up of 10 diocese kaya each school has its own prerogative whether to raise tuition or not,” he explained.
But he admitted that the tuition fee hike is pushing many parents to transfer their children to public schools.
Santos said their enrollment every year continue to drop owing to high tuition.
However, he stressed that what concerns them more is the growing margin on the ratio between the students in public schools to their teacher.
“Alam mo ang movement sa statistics natin for the past few years sa pagsisilbi natin sa Catholic schools, dito sa mga parochial schools mababa na ang ating tuition, pero kapag ito hindi na nakayanan ng mga magulang, lilipat na talaga sa mga public schools, yung mga nasa better schools yung mga matataas talaga ang tuition ng mga private catholic schools, pag hindi na nakayanan ang tuition nyan, lumilipat naman sa amin. Kaya ang trend eh papunta sa public schools,” he said.
Around 53 private elementary schools in the National Capital Region (NCR) have already filed their application for tuition fee increase this school year, the Department of Education-National Capital Region (DepEd-NCR) said.
The DepEd-NCR also disclosed that tuition fee increase may range from two percent to 10 percent. The deadlinefor the submission of the petition is on May 15.
