March 29 is Blog Action Day for Education

My blog entry in support of the Blog Action Day for Education organized by Kabataan Party-list online team.

We have witnessed the show of defiance of students from two of the biggest state universities in the country: Polytechnic University of the Philippines and University of the Philippines.

PUP students bravely opposed the impending increase in its tuition from P12/unit to 1666 percent. UP students, faculty and employees, meanwhile, united on the following important issues: 1) the proposed laboratory fees and miscellaneous fees;2) the appointment of a new PGH Director over the previously appointed and legitimate Director; and 3) the UP BOR's continued meetings without a sitting Student Regent, thus denying the stakeholders to be represented in all important matters being tackled in the BOR.

The simultaneous actions served to inspire other schools who have opposed proposed tuition and miscellaneous fee hikes for the coming school year 2010-2011. Two hundred thirty three (233) schools have proposed to increase tuition and other fees based on a study by the National Union of Students of the Philippines.

The protest actions have reached every household, eliciting debates in various social networking sites, forums, and national TV.

What message does these protest actions serve to convey?

1) That the students' militance and vigor is of equal fervor with that of the FQS activists. Drawing inspiration from the mass actions staged during the 70s, students have proven that they will not take the government's continuous neglect sitting down.

As I have mentioned in my previous blog post, we have successfully opposed past Philippine presidents' education programs. We shall continue to oppose budget cuts in education resulting to schools going self-reliant, embarking on numerous commercialization schemes.

2) That the state of Philippine education has long been in crisis. Very meager budget is allotted for education -a measly 3% of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Of the 1648 Higher Education Institutions, only 110 are state-owned. Students and parents are thus forced to shoulder high cost of fees in private schools.

With state universities raising fees (UP raised its tuition from P300 to P1000 per unit, EARIST from P15/unit to P100/unit) education has become inaccessible.

2. That the state have long abandoned its mandated responsibility. That is, to provide the highest budgetary allocation to education clearly written in Article XIV, Section 5, Paragraph 5 of the Constitution. Education spending is only 3rd to debt-servicing and military spending.

The issue is of utmost importance, presidential candidates should clearly present their education agenda.