‘Free tuition policy selective’

MANILA, Philippines -  When they enroll for the coming school year, students in state universities and colleges (SUCs) will find out that not all of them will enjoy free tuition.

Party-list group Kabataan yesterday said the administration’s much-publicized free tuition policy is selective.

“The immense pressure caused by calls for free education compelled legislators to re-align P8 billion to fund tuition for all 114 SUCs. It all seemed too good to be true. But when the budget was signed, President Duterte inked a dangerous caveat – it shall be implemented conditionally, to benefit the poor but deserving,” it said.

It took the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) “almost six months to put their brains together to think of an ingenious way of following the President’s order while upholding the facade that they are for free college education,” Kabataan added.

Kabataan also pointed out that the CHED-DBM implementing rules and regulations (IRRs) give priority to students belonging to families receiving state dole-outs under 4Ps (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program) and those getting subsidy under student financial assistance programs.

“The remaining students eligible will be ranked according to their per capita household income, similar in essence to UP’s socialized tuition system,” it said.

“The program has been a conduit for corruption, which siphoned obscene amounts of public funds in the guise of helping people get by. By subjecting the free tuition policy to 4Ps, it will only serve to justify this flawed poverty alleviation measure and further absolve the government from resolving the roots of poverty, in this case, the lack of education of its citizens,” the group noted.