Free tuition will benefit the rich
A WEEK ago, President Rodrigo Duterte signed Republic Act (RA) 10931 or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act. The reaction was mostly positive coming from the students who did not think of its consequences on the poor and indigent families and the limited resources of State-Owned Universities and Colleges (SUCs).
Those who celebrated the passage of RA 10931 said that every college and university student would not be burdened with exorbitant tuition and miscellaneous fees. For me, we have nothing to celebrate for long-term economic and social justice reasons.
The likely beneficiaries of the Free Tuition Law are those who are well-off but have chosen to study in SUCs and those who don’t excel academically and who cannot be accepted in prestigious private colleges and universities. Those who are coming from low-income families who are studying in SUCs can be beneficiaries, too, but there won’t equality anymore because students coming from well-off families can benefit more.
The Free Tuition Law still cannot convince the low-income families to bring their child to college because of other daily living expenses that the government cannot subsidize. The Free Tuition Law will encourage the well-off students from private colleges and universities to transfer to SUCs to benefit from the free tuition even though they have the means to pay for their studies.
The Free Tuition Law will divert the allocation of budget from K to 12 and health service to the SUCs, so how could he bring a child to college if his/ her basic education is inadequate and not in better health condition?
In social justice perspective, granting free tuition to well-off students, especially those who are academically deficient, would be a great injustice to those who are not welloff but are academically deserving.
I think legislators only passed the bill in order to appease the innocent minds of college and university students, particularly the welloff one, who are too entitled to be granted free tuition while at the same time relying on the pockets of their parents.
Everyone should accept the fact that tertiary education is not for everyone and that it is only for those who are capable of surviving the rigors of tertiary education teaching methods. There is technical and vocational studies by the way, why not avail of it? — Joseph Solis Alcayde