MANILA -- Independent presidential candidate Nicanor Perlas on Saturday said the impending tuition hike on state-run Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) highlighted a “corrupt and demoralized” political and educational system.
Perlas said he was “alarmed” with television reports on student protests in PUP and in the University of the Philippines (UP) while backing the students’ strong opposition to the proposed 1700 percent increase in select courses, which will peg the base tuition from P12 to P200.
In this regard, Partido ng Marangal na Sambayanan (Pangmasa) presented a three-point action plan to carry out his education agenda.
* Identify the top 100 secondary educational institutions of the country, provide support for their innovative practices, document and disseminate their creative educational practices, and enter into partnerships with them as hubs of educational excellence.
* Do an in-depth study, involving all stakeholders, as basis for the gradual transfer educational services to the cultural non-profit sector of society especially in partnership with the community.
* Create the policy environment for strengthening the role of private education in all levels of the school system.
* Increase the usage of educational vouchers to widen the choices of parents. Increase focus beyond just quantity of education services to quality of education services including more holistic educational approaches that develop multi-talented, creative, critical-thinking, socially-oriented students and citizens
“By a holistic approach to these problems in education we will be able to provide affordable education as a right of every citizen that goes beyond our generation into the next,” the party said.
Commission on Higher Education (Ched) Chairman Emmanuel Angeles on Thursday pledged a tuition hike moratorium on three government-run schools, namely: PUP in Manila, Dr. Espinosa Memorial State College of Agriculture and Technology in Masbate, and the Mindanao State University campus in Sulu. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)