Enlarged copies of a memorandum from the university”s administration are recently posted on the different corners of our three campuses. It says that it calls the attention of the College Student Government, the Board of Directors, and all other school officials concerned.
The agenda – tuition fee increase.
This memo earned different reactions from the students of the university, including their parents.
Few days after the notice was posted, student-activists came shouting outside our main campus yelling,
“Education is not for sale!”. They were joined by those activists who traditionally join any protest and those students from other schools.
Well, majority really complained about the increase on the horizon. Who won’t anyway. Though they say the economy is improving, and the values of Peso to Dollar and Gross Domestic Product are improving, still , the prices especially of the needs in the islands are in anyway going down.
Education in a third world country is a need. This is the best way the young people in the Philippines know to escape poverty.
But because an ordinary Filipino student’s needs to finish a bachelor’s degree are very costly, this sometimes leas and pushes them to decide to take desperate measures.
There are those who tend to give up give in some moment their principles to earn money. We all know cheating is a sin, and tardiness must not be tolerated. Yet instead, those skilled students tend to forget them to earn money for solving a comprehensive mathematical problem, a research paper or a 3-minute speech.
There are those also who tend to sacrifice their leisure times at an early age of 15 to work as student assistants, and get some tuition fee credit and some alllowance for doing the job.
Unfortunately, there are those who are very desperate to pay their tuition fees that they come to the verge of surrendering their virginity, the youngest that I know is at 16 from a catholic university.
She said, “Of course I did not like it. But I really need the cash to fulfill my ambitions. I don’t know if I’ll not do it again. Maybe if I’ll need it.”
See how one gives up almost evrything to attain the education they need to succeed in their lives.
President Gloria Arroyo has been pleading that someday the people below poverty line will feel the country’s economy getting better.
She is dreaming well then. With two and a half years left? With the fat leech that she has in her family? With the problem that she is having with her coalition? With the scandals she has not yet been fully cleared of? With no strong ally she could endorse to assure that her plead to the Filipino people will be realized?
So far, I as a student, have not yet felt we are getting even a speck of life improvement since the President has been boasting that Philippine economy is doing good.
Tuition fees are increasing, prices of school supplies are going up, fares will be going up. What else? Daily skipping of meals, eating a strick of banana cue for lunch, etc.
God bless me and this country.
