The Commission on Higher Education (CHEd-7) approved the application of eight private higher education institutions (HEIs) in Central Visayas to increase their tuition and other school fees for school year 2017 to 2018.
Seven schools are in Cebu while one is in Bohol.
The CHEd website lists the schools in Cebu whose application for tuition increase was approved: Cebu Institute of Technology – University (CIT-U) with 5 percent tuition and 5 percent school fees increase; Cebu Roosevelt Memorial College, 10 percent tuition and 10 percent school fees increase; Saint Louise de Marillac College – Bogo, 9 percent tuition increase (but no school fee increase); Saint Theresa’s College of Cebu with 5 percent tuition and 4.42 percent other school fees increase; Southwestern University – Matias H. Aznar Memorial College of Medicine, 7 percent tuition and 7 percent school fees increase; STI College – Cebu City, 5 percent tuition and 7.40 percent other school fees; and University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF) with 6.01 percent tuition and 9.92 percent school fees increase.
The application of STI College Tagbilaran in Bohol was also approved for a 4.76 percent tuition and 7.60 percent school fees increase.
CHEd-7 Regional Director Freddie Bernal said the reasons cited in the applications for an increase in tuition and other school fees are for the increase in salaries of teachers and for the development of facilities.
“Those approved applications are justified and were reviewed by our central office,” Bernal told Cebu Daily News.
He said that there is also a need to increase the salary and benefits of the teachers.
The education rate for Central Visayas as issued by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and National Economic Development Authority (Neda) is at 3.3 percent.
But Bernal said that schools that have approved applications for more than 3.3 percent were made to justify the higher rate they applied for.
“Maybe there is a compelling reason why they had to raise at that percentage,” Bernal said.
Niño Olayvar, coordinator of Anakbayan Visayas, was disappointed by the approval of the increase in tuition and school fees, saying it is anti-poor.
“One of the reasons why they have tuition and school fee increase is because they are affected by the K to 12 program. They need to increase fees because of the affected number of enrollees,” Olayvar told Cebu Daily News.
He challenged the CHEd not to approve tuition increase applications next year.
“The schools’ priority now is business and not public service,” Olayvar added.
Bernal said there are no tuition increases for state universities because these are subsidized by the government.
“For the private schools, paano mga teachers at sino ang magbibigay ng mga umento? Mawawalan tayo ng mga magagaling na private schools because they are not receiving salary increase or benefits,” Bernal said.
(What about the teachers? Who will give them a salary increase? We will lose good teachers in private schools because they are not getting a salary increase or benefits.)