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Prioritizing free education

Education Secretary Sonny Angara wants state university administrators and the government to fix the implementation of free college tuition subsidies to prevent wealthy students from pushing out deserving and underprivileged students from the program, as resources for the education sector have already been thinly spread after the education subsidy was expanded to include university students.

Angara, a UP alumnus, said government should not subsidize “kids of the rich, but that’s what we’re doing with the existing implementation.”

The Commission on Higher Education had previously acknowledged how admission policies of state universities and colleges have been a problem for “quite some time” as these remain skewed in favor of children who come from privileged households, especially in sought-after institutions like UP and the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.

CHED had commissioned a P15-million study earlier this year to determine how state universities and colleges (SUCs) can craft admission policies that “ensure there is a fair representation of disadvantaged students in higher education.”

For its part, UP said it was experimenting on measures to ensure greater access to students who come from underserved communities.

As more underprivileged college students drop out every year due to financial difficulties, Angara said the government needs to focus on free college education for deserving students and prevent the “ones who don’t need it” from getting subsidies.

As of 2023, CHED reported over 2 million SUC students are receiving free tertiary education across 200 institutions nationwide.

As the Philippines is not a rich country, its limited funds must be spent on those who need it most, especially when it comes to education that is universally seen as the most effective path out of poverty. Unless funds are unlimited, the implementation of the free college tuition subsidies has to prioritize the deserving and underprivileged students who obviously need it more than those who have the means. Until then, state universities and colleges must adjust their admission policies to reflect the spirit of the law that was intended to give poor but deserving Filipino students a shot at a better future.*

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November 2024
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