NO TO TUITION FEE HIKE. Students protest in front of Commission on Higher Education (Ched 10) office here on Friday, to call against moves to increase tuition and other school fees in the region. Vennel Chenfoo of the group Kabataan said at least five students from state universities committed suicide due to their financial inability to pay for their tuition. (Photo by Hensell Hebaya)
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By GERALD LEIGH C. LAQUINON,
Correspondent

Student activists held a protest action in front of the regional office of the Commission on Higher Education here on Friday.

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League of Filipino Students (LFS) spokesperson in northern Mindanao Kristine Cabardo said they decried the commercialization of education manifested in another rounds of tuition and other school fee increase in higher education institutions.

“We would like to voice out our call against the unending increase of school fees in private school and state universities,” Cabardo said.

Among the 400 HEIs nationwide that will implement a tuition hike next academic year, Xavier University (XU) and Cagayan de Oro College (COC-Phinma) will both have its five percent increase.

It has been reported earlier by Ched that around 17 HEIs in northern Mindanao have applied for tuition increase following their respective consultations with their stakeholders which include the student government, Parents-Teachers Association and Alumni Association.

Ched’s Regional Chief Education Program Specialist, Mr. John A. Banaynal, said that the protest was “premature” since the HEIs are yet to submit this month reports of their consultations for Ched evaluation and approval by April.

But Kabataan Partylist nominee Vennel Francis Chenfoo said that “historically, Ched has been a rubber stamp of these capitalist educators whose income they are defending.”

During the protest, Chenfoo and other student leaders met with Ched Director Zenaida G. Gersana in a dialogue; but the director said they can do nothing about the plight of the students since it is a national policy.

The group also denounced the continuing collection of miscellaneous and other school fees, development fee and cultural development fee, saying they are already declared illegal by the Ched resolution No. 2221-2012.

But XU reportedly continues to collect P500 of these fees along with Mindanao State University- Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT), P100; Mindanao University of Science and Technology (MUST), P750 and P600; Lourdes College, P663; Bukidnon State University, P50; and Central Mindanao University, P100.

“These schools are so creative in inventing different fees just to amass profit and the Ched has been inutile despite the burden we and our parents are shouldering,” added Cabardo.

Chenfoo also pointed out that the Ched memorandum No. 9-2013 that prohibits a “No Permit, No Exam” policy likewise is not implemented on the ground since schools like XU and BSU still have it.

The protest action is part of the National Day of Action against tuition and other school fee increases and student repression which the group said have led to five educationelated deaths including Kristel Tejada of UP Manila and Rosanna Sanfuego of Cagayan State University.

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