PROTEST actions marred the opening of classes on Monday with members of the youth group Anakbayan condemning the Aquino administration’s education policies.
Members of the group staged a picket on Mendiola Street, Manila, on Monday morning to condemn the tuition increases imposed by private schools with Malacañang’s alleged approval and to reiterate their opposition to the Aquino administration’s K to 12 program.
The protesters said private schools should not have been allowed to impose tuition increases without justification considering that private schools are already raking in huge profits.
Anakbayan said 354 private tertiary schools out of 451 applicants and 241 private elementary and high schools out of 1,144 applicants were allowed to impose tuition and other fees increases.
Some private colleges and universities have increased their tuition to as high as P130 per unit, aside from increases in miscellaneous fees, the group said.
Anakbayan-National Capital Region Secretary-General Andre Zarate told the BusinessMirror in an interview that more protest actions will be held in the ensuing days, saying any tuition increase imposed by private schools will only add burden to the Filipino people considering the high cost of living and the fact that the government continues to deny petitions for substantial wage increase until now.
He said his group, along with the League of Filipino Students (LFS), National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) and the College Editors’ Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) will lead anti-tuition increase rallies and demonstrations inside and outside campuses in Metro Manila and different parts of the country on June 10 and June 19.
The groups, he added, will call on lawmakers to pass a legislation that imposes a tuition increase moratorium. He recalled that a proposed measure was filed by the Kabataan Party-list group.
The protesters blamed the Aquino administration for what they said was the worsening educational crisis, and referred to Malacañang as “the gate of hell” for the Filipino youth “whose dreams will be burned to ashes because we are being deprived of our right to education.”
Zarate said the opening of classes will also mark the start of a series of protest actions against the anti-poor policies of the Aquino administration such as in education, which allegedly paves the way for state abandonment of its duties and obligations to the Filipino youth.
“Instead of making quality education accessible to all, this government is the one enabling private schools to hike fees,” he said.
He added that although there is a 70-20-10 increment system which will go to the salary of teachers, improvement of facilities and return-of-investment, respectively, the government has neither the will nor the resources to check whether the increment system is being implemented.
Meanwhile, Zarate said with the implementation of the K to 12, which is designed to train students taking up basic education as semi-skilled workers, more Filipino youths will not be able, or will decide not, to pursue college education anymore.
K to 12, the group stressed, is just another scheme for state abandonment of its duties to provide the Filipino youth quality education.
The group added that the program will eventually lead to a decline in the number of state universities and colleges with the government’s plan to allocate less for education.
The group is reacting to a pronouncement of the Department of Budget and Management that the government will yet again reduce its spending on state universities and colleges.
This, the group lamented, is despite the howls of protest over the death of 16-year-old University of the Philippines Manila student Kristel Tejada, who committed suicide owing to the failure to raise funds for tuition.
“Aquino’s grand scheme, dubbed as ‘Road map to Philippine Higher Education Reform,’ is set to cast a darker future for the Filipino youth. This scheme is the application of neo-liberal policies on education under Aquino—denationalization, privatization, liberalization and deregulation—all of which are present in the system today,” Zarate said.
“The opening of classes will mark the opening of protests against policies and the system that continues to deprive the youth of a better future,” he said.
This is Communist Party of the Philippines-associated front group activity. Anakbayan is a CPP-linked party-list organization. The LFS is a radical CPP student front while the NUSP and CEGP are CPP-influenced/dominated front groups. CPP propagandists pander to a wide variety of sectoral and cause-oriented audiences. The groups above were formed to rally support front the youth and student sectors.
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