BAGUIO CITY – The student councils from Baguio universities Saint Louis University, University of the Cordilleras, and University of the Philippines Baguio along with NUSP Cordillera and Kabataan Partylist Cordillera manifested concerns on policies that allow these schools’ Tuition and Other Fees Increase (TOFI) without regulation. Several CHED Memorandum Order (CMO) provide autonomous schools with benefits: worry-free annual TOFI and loopholes in the guidelines, as long as they maintain their status through implementing Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) and Transnational Education (TNE).
“CHED should be the agency protecting students’ access to education. It is described in the Philippine Constitution and CHED’s mission-vision statement: provide accessible education for all. And yet, it paves the way in schools’ money-making agenda. Students are made to pay large investments to learn, and eventually work, like robots,” NUSP Metro Baguio chairperson Franz Calanio says.
The position paper details the following CMOs as cause for annual TOFI and the exhaustive, requirements-heavy mode of learning: (1) CMO 3 s. 2012 which allows TOFI for freshmen without the need for permit and consultation; (2) CMO 19 s. 2016 providing privileges for “autonomous schools”, including implementing TOFI without securing a permit from CHED; (3) CMO 46 s. 2012 which indicates schools can obtain “deregulated” and “autonomous” status if it gains accreditations and follows through with OBE and TNE; and (4) CMO 62 s. 2016 which describes CHED’s dedication to TNE, making schooling centered on producing students equipped with internationally marketable skills.
Calanio adds, “The reason our curriculum makes us exhausted from requirements is the combination of outcomes-based and transnational education. Learning focuses on an internationally-acceptable standard of skills learning, and focuses on producing students for the ‘market economy’. We are not seen as students, but future workers that can be exported.”
Schools’ compliance, along with gaining accreditations and international certifications, helps them gain either ‘deregulated’ or ‘autonomous and deregulated’ status with the privilege of unconsulted tuition increase. TOFI for the three biggest private schools are as follows: Saint Louis University at 7%, University of Baguio and University of the Cordilleras at 10%. SLU TOFI was met with widespread protest from students, which they were successful in lowering the increase from the original 9%.
Student leaders call for CHED to move away from its nature as a stamp pad for TOFI and implementer of policies that maintain our current state of education. We wish to work together for the education we want for our youth and the future generations.
