PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has formally instructed the country’s higher education commission to look into reforming the no-tuition, no exams policy in another bid to enable the upward mobility of the youth through education.
“The ‘no payment, no periodic examination policy’, I understand is one of the main reasons why young students from poor families drop out of college,” she said in front of 6000 students and youth leaders at the Bohol Wisdom School gym.
On revealing her instruction to the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) the president pressed “this has to change to ensure a decent graduation rate for college.”
“Rigid tuition fee payment rules cannot be allowed to sabotage the great educational agenda of our Administration,” she stressed further as he instructed the review to make education a way to marginalize poverty.
By this, she has also bared her Administration’s considered of the tuition fee policy as a concern that must be responded to immediately to expand educational opportunities.
“That is so important because in today’s global economy, knowledge is the greatest creator of wealth,” she announced amid the applause of students and youth leaders gathered during the national convention here.
She impressed the government’s role of pouring all savings and revenues into programs that help the poor and the middle-class, investments in economy, environment and education.
Another concern was to expand the coverage of the Student Assistance Fund for Education (SAFE).
The benefits of our SAFE should receive the fullest of endowments, the president daughter of a poor man turned president said.
Inspired by the stories of successful poor students, President Arroyo told CHEd to instruct all state universities and colleges to devise a flexible, socially-sensitive tuition fee payment plan, aside from reforming the “no payment, no periodic examination policy”
In the executive order, she also instructs the commission to expand the coverage of the SAFE program.
“On top of tuition, beneficiaries of the program should be able to borrow from the fund for a monthly stipend to subsidize the students’ transport fares and laboratory, research and book allowance,” the president said.
My dream for the youth that you represent is that in the prime of your life ten years, twenty years from today, you will see the Philippines on the verge of first world, she bared
That in the prime of your life, poverty shall have been marginalized; and the marginalized raised to a robust middle-class, President Arroyo said. (rachiu/PIA)
