AMID RISING cost of living due to the recent price adjustments
in oil, food and public fare, private schools are urged to forego
tuition hikes as their patriotic and noble solidarity with the hard-pressed
Filipino consumers.
Tuition increases account for more than 27 percent of the inflation
rate in the service sector of the economy. The Commission on Higher
Education has already reported 214 schools (83 in Metro Manila)
which collected higher fees this schoolyear. The list can be higher
if we include those which increased miscellaneous fees.
Private schools, unlike other private companies, can manage to
lower profits because they are motivated more by the charitable
act of uplifting the intellectual and moral fiber of the Filipino
children than by
monetary gain.
By maintaining the same fees as that of the last year, schools
stand to benefit more in terms of a higher enrollment figure.
We also suggest that instead of spending huge amount of money on
expensive TV, radio and print ads, universities, especially computer
schools can use these resources to improve school facilities and
thus be able to charge the same and even lower fees.
School authorities should realize that destabilization rumors hounding
the Republic these days feed on the economic difficulties confronting
our people. By helping children manage to enroll in schools and
thus
temporarily alleviating the dire situation of our people, schools
would be a big factor in defusing a possible chaotic situation in
the Metro.
This plea is specially directed to Catholic schools which have
been recently involved in the crusade for a clean and honest elections.
We hope their zealous appeal to our leaders to think of the future
of our nation can also be applied in the management of their learning
institutions which rank among the most expensive schools in the
country.
How duplicitous it would look that after being the site of national
tabulation and quick count centers, Catholic schools would be counting
their own quick cash by charging higher fees amidst the sea of poverty
engulfing the country.
What could be more insensitive to the future of the nation than
this act of hypocrisy?
