President Duterte Slammed By Youth Groups For Failing To Provide Free Education For Colleges
A group of students slams President Rodrigo Duterte for failing to fulfill his promises in providing a free education for the students in colleges and state universities (SUC’s) nationwide.
Youth groups said that increase of budget is not enough to ensure free education for the students. Rara Ada of Sanlakas Youth said that free education must be given to all students’ in all SUC’s and not limit it just only for the poor and qualified students.
Sanlakas Youth is a national organization of student activists who fights for the democratic rights of the youth. Ada also cited Duterte’s promise during the campaign period to provide a free tertiary education for everyone.
“What is being flaunted as a progressive step in ensuring tertiary education as a right to be accessed by those who choose to is really just a deceptive mechanism in justifying the increase of tuition and other fees, as those who were considered unqualified for free tuition are deemed rich enough to cope with higher fees,” explained by Ada quoted by Summit Express.
She also cited the decreasing number of students enrolling in college due to the increase of tuition and miscellaneous fees. She also explained her experience saying some SUC’s were classifying students by brackets, which led to tuition fee increase.
Ada also explained that instead of motivating students to pursue tertiary education, it serves as a burden for them in proving that they are poor enough to be qualified to attain free college. The increased budget allocation for the education was not enough to sustain the needs and to meet the standards for the education, according to some scholar-activist.
Zaira Baniaga, Chairperson of KAISA-UP said that the national government has only 3 percent Gross National Product, which is half of the 6 percent required standards of UNESCO in 2008.