Advocacy group says B needed to give free quality higher education
ow much is needed to fund free quality higher education for all?
Contrary to the earlier announcement of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), a private sector-led advocacy group on Friday said that it would cost the government at least billion to be able to give free “quality” higher education for all in public universities.
Based on a study conducted by the Philippine Business for Education (PBEd), the government needs around
billion to cover the cost of free tertiary education for freshmen alone and at least billion for students in existing State Universities and Colleges (SUCs).
PBED said that this computation was based on the “annual minimum cost of going to a quality SUC” like the University of the Philippines (UP). It used that latest enrollment data from the CHED and its own “costing study” conducted in 2015.
For 2018, PBED said that there is only billion budget for the “free tuition” or billion for SUCs along with the billion additional subsidy. “With such a resource gap, can we really afford free and quality college, now and in the years to come?” the group asked.
On August 3, President Rodrigo Duterte signed the Republic Act 10931 or the “Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act” which will “grant free tuition and other fees for students” in SUCs, local universities and colleges (LUCs), and technical-vocational institutions (TVIs) nationwide despite opposition from his own economic team due to lack of funding.
The CHED earlier expressed confidence that the government would be able to get enough funding for the “free tuition law” since only about billion is needed to implement it.
CHED Commission Prospero De Vera III, in a recent presidential press briefing in Malacañang on August 10, announced that for the 2018 budget, the amount needed for the implementation of the newly-signed law is only around billion or about billion for the 112 SUCs and 16 CHEd-accredited LUCs and around to 4 billion to be allocated TVIs.
De Vera noted that the additional funds needed for the free tuition law may be sourced from “current scholarship and financial assistance money already existing in the budget of several government agencies” such as the CHED, Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and Department of Agriculture (DA) – among others.
While the group welcomes the signing of RA 10931, PBED said that this will anticipate “a tough challenge ahead” – particularly on the financing side. This is because “quality higher education comes at a hefty price tag.”
To ensure that the “education the law affords for all Filipinos is of high quality and sustainable,” PBEd is “pushing for adequate funding” earmarked by the government.
PBED also expressed hope that as the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) – which is currently being crafted – “must clearly reflect mechanisms to engage the private sector, both from industry and academe, in standard setting and service delivery.”
As for the Tertiary Education Subsidy fund – as stated in the free tuition law – which intended to cover “indirect costs,” PBED said that this “must be implemented with integrity and transparency, that the assistance actually reaches those who need it the most.”