VARIOUS youth and student groups are set to conduct their nationwide protest against tuition hike in various universities and colleges on Friday.
Dubbed as #AyokoMagmahal, Anakbayan chairperson Vencer Crisostomo said the protest will be held in all the cities nationwide to call for moratorium on tuition increase.
Crisostomo said the tuition rate and the profits of the private universities doubled from P30,000 to P50,000 to a whopping P60,000-P100,000 annually during the term of President Benigno Aquino III.
He added that this also happened with the Commission on Higher Education (Ched) functioning as a "rubber stamp" to legitimize the school fee increases.
"This month of love, several students and parents will be left with broken hearts with student consultations for tuition and other fee hikes set to begin this February," Crisostomo said.
He said their independent monitoring shows that over 400 universities and colleges nationwide are expected to hike fees.
He said the youth group asserted that the issue is not related to government red tape and/or procedures on allowing tuition hikes but the government's deregulation policy on the education sector, which allows private school owners to increase tuition yearly.