House body ‘hastens’ Magna Carta passage

The House Committee on Higher and Technical Education is fast-tracking the passage of the Magna Carta of Students, which includes a section that seeks to tighten tuition regulation in the country.

This came a day after the Commission on Higher Education approved a new wave of tuition and other school fee increases in 313 colleges and universities in the country.

Kabataan Partylist Representative Terry Ridon said CHTE members sat down with student leaders of various schools and organizations in a technical working group meeting to iron out the remaining snags and hitches in the substitute bill for the Magna Carta, which is a consolidated version of House Bills 102, 1098, 2870, and 4435.

Ridon, who is one of the authors of the proposed measure, said Section 10 of the substitute bill proposes a stringent process that schools need to undergo whenever they propose fee increases, and the creation of a “School Fee Board” in each school that would deliberate such proposals.

The board would be composed of “an equal number of representatives from the administration, academic and non-academic personnel, parents/guardians, students, and the alumni association.”

Other pertinent provisions of the Student Magna Carta lays down the basic rights of students in the Philippines, including the right to organize, right of expression, academic freedom, right to information, right to participate in policy-making, and the right to due process in disciplinary proceedings.

The bill also underscores the importance of student organizations and institutions, and includes several provisions for the protection of the right of students to join and form organizations.

“It is high time for Congress to pass a bill that would not only regulate tuition and other school fees effectively, but also safeguard the fundamental rights of Filipino students,” said Ridon, in a statement.

He said that in the section on tuition and other school fee regulations, for example, there is a need to insert a provision that would ensure that only through the consensus of all members of the school board can a fee adjustment be passed.

In the event that no consensus is made, Ridon said, the previous rate of tuition and other fees would apply.

While he expressed optimism that the Student Magna Carta will be passed into law before the end of the 16th Congress, the legislator also emphasized that laws on tuition regulation would only be effective if CHED and the national government would “stop betraying students” and instead commit to ensuring affordable and accessible education in the country.

Meanwhile, the youth group League of Filipino Students condemned CHED on the approval of tuition and other school fee increases in 313 private higher educational institutions for the academic year 2015-2016.

The militant student organization said the average percent increase nationwide is 6.48 percent.

LFS also slammed CHED for using inflation to justify tuition hikes.