Free college education will improve lives

THERE’S little doubt that education is the great equalizer that could help narrow the gap between rich and poor Filipinos. The better educated have a better chance to succeed in life.

Studies show that failure to complete at least an elementary education inevitably leads to a life of extreme poverty. Generation after generation of impoverished Filipinos doomed to debilitating economic hardships have barely gone beyond Grade Three.

A college graduate usually has an average income that is more than twice that of a mere high school graduate, according to latest data from the Family and Income Expenditure Survey. A college diploma also leads to better employability, and degree holders usually don’t get married while so young and ill-prepared. The benefits of higher education extend beyond family; a better-educated citizenry leads to better social and economic development for the entire country where inclusive growth can be a tangible reality.

Thus, making education accessible is of paramount importance. So important is it that it had to be enshrined in the fundamental law of the land. Article14, Section 1 of the 1987 Constitution states: “The State shall protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality education at all levels and shall take appropriate steps to make such education accessible to all.”

Although there is free elementary and secondary education in public schools, many of the poor find it difficult to avail of the basic education program. They simply don’t have any money for basic needs to attend school, or they don’t have the time to study because they have to eke out a living at a young age just to survive.

To give the poorest of the poor a fighting chance to break away from a life of misery, government has pursued the Conditional Cash Transfer program that has education and good health as twin goals in the scheme to uplift the plight of the millions of families living in sub-human conditions and barely earning a hundred pesos a day.

The CCT has enabled the poor to gain more access to basic education as the necessary first step to improve their wretched lives. But the Constitution says that accessible quality education must be at all levels and not only at elementary and secondary levels.

Thus, the infusion of about 18.3billion to the 110-billion 2017 budget of the Commission on Higher Education to cover this year’s tuition of students in state universities and colleges (SUCs) is a welcome development to address the Constitutional requirement.

While the amount would only “take care of about 30 to 40 percent of the students’ total costs on average,” according to Sen. Bam Aquino who used to chair the Senate education committee, the free tuition is seen as a major reform. He said there are currently 1,645,566 students in our SUCs and the annual weighted average tuition in SUCs is 19,407 per year.

Although the tuition allotment for this year is a big help to students who have to cough up huge miscellaneous fees and other school expenses, institutionalizing free tuition must be pursued. Pending measures in Congress awaiting passage into law can enable more access to college education which has been only addressed so far by the Iskolar ng Bayan Act and the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education (UniFAST) Law, aside from the scholarships lodged in CHED, DOST and other agencies.

But while free tuition in SUCs is laudable, it has its share of criticisms. The administration’s economic managers said an across-the-board free tuition policy “will put a strain on the budget and cause students in private schools to migrate to state schools, which may cause the system to deteriorate.” It would also “largely benefit non-poor students who dominate the population of SUCs,” they added.

“The bulk of students in public higher educational institutions are mostly from higher income groups while students coming from the bottom 20% consist of only 12% in 2014,” the economic think tank Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF) said, citing the 2014 Annual Poverty Indicators Survey. “Tuition covers only one-third of the cost of attending college. The balance consists of cost of living allowances, which the poor are in no position to pay. Higher income students who have the ability to pay for these living allowances will end up using the free tuition subsidy.”

I find valid the position of our economic managers that a better alternative is full funding of the UniFAST because it provides a more coherent and comprehensive framework for helping students in financial need. In other words, assistance may be given directly to students and not to SUCs.

That free college tuition might not really benefit the poor was also expressed by CHEd Chair Patricia Licuanan. “The poorest of the poor are not yet in college. They have been knocked out long ago and enrollment of the poorest quintile in higher education is only 8 percent. So it’s not going to benefit the poor,” she said in a TV interview.

Many tend to agree with her view. Government ought to address accessibility problems faced by poor students as early as their basic education years and not only when they are already supposed to be in college. After all, school expenses are just one of major obstacles poor students face. There are also lack of adequate infrastructure and transport as students have to walk for hours to reach school.

There are also the perennial problems of dilapidated and lack of classrooms. And there are also lack of textbooks, teaching materials, and computers to enhance every student’s learning process and hone their IT skills to be competitive with counterparts in other countries.

But amid all these problems, the big step finally taken towards free college education is indisputably a game changer. It would certainly open doors to improve the lives of impoverished students who aspire to reach greater heights.