Education under state of calamity, rechannel funds to SUCs - Maza

Philippine education is under state of calamity.

This was the statement of Makabayan-Nacionalista senatorial candidate and Gabriela Rep. Liza Maza, hitting the Arroyo administration's low budget prioritization of education in the past fiscal years, as well as the cuts in the budget of the state colleges and universities.

"President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's policy is to increase tuition and increasingly privatize education. This can be seen in the consistent cuts in the budget of the education sector in the last nine years of her administration. She also allowed, and even encouraged, the skyrocketing increase in tuition and other fees of state-owned and controlled universities and colleges all over the country," Maza said.

The most recent government owned university to implement a tuition hike is the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), which currently offers the lowest tuition for students at P12/unit. An estimated 50,000 new students will be affected by the proposal to increase the tuition by 2,000% next school year, from P12/unit to P200/unit. PUP’s budget has declined from P704 million in 2009 to P661 million in 2010. University of the Philippines had already increased tuition in UP in 2006 from P300 to P1,000 per unit.

Maza, a former teacher, said that this alarming state of the Philippine education calls for an immediate action by the president.

"All government departments and agencies, including the Office of the President, should immediately rechannel all of their available funds to the education sector. One such source could be the intelligence funds of the departments and agencies, which could be put together to prevent the fall of the education system," Maza suggested.

"Not only the education of our children is at stake here, but the future of our country most importantly," Maza said. ###