Free tuition in SUCs unsustainable, disruptive — economic managers

MANILA, Philippines -  Economic managers are not budging on their opposition to the provision of free tuition in state universities and colleges (SUCs), which, they said, will be unsustainable and disruptive to the education market.

During the hearing on the proposed 2018 national budget held by the House Committee on Appropriations on Tuesday, Kabataan party-list Rep. Sarah Elago raised concern on the absence of appropriations for the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act which was approved by Congress in May but has not yet been signed by the President.

She also noted that the P8-billion allocation diverted from Mindanao public works to subsidize tuition in select SUCs is missing from the 2018 budget.

Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said appropriations could not be made for free tuition in SUCs in the absence of any law. Even if a policy is already in place, the government cannot afford to shell out the P100 billion needed to fully subsidize the tuition of college students enrolled in SUCs.

“It will cost us around P100 billion. The government cannot afford that,” Diokno said.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said fully subsidizing college education in SUCs will not be beneficial to the poor and will be a financial drain to the government.

“The budget for free tuition is really quite large. It’s going to be unsustainable over time,” he said.

This will also disrupt the education market as the influx of parents rapidly transferring their children from private colleges and universities to SUCs effectively kills high-performing private higher education institutions (HEIs), according to Pernia.

“It will disadvantage private (HEIs) because there will be an exodus (due to) the attractiveness of SUCs. There will be an exodus of students from private universities to SUCs. Note that the rating and performance of private HEIs are higher than that of SUCs. In fact, in terms of passing rates and licensure exams, they perform much better than students coming from SUCs,” Pernia told lawmakers.

The across-the-board provision of tuition subsidies is also unwarranted, as it will not really benefit students belonging to the poorest families, according to him.

“Essentially, the free tuition…will benefit children of families who will otherwise be able to afford tuition in SUCs, In fact, many of them come from upper-income families,” he said.

Pernia instead batted for the full implementation and funding of the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education (UniFAST), which rationalizes the allocation, utilization and targeting of recipients of the assistance.

“The biggest problem of this country is poverty. We want to address that problem. And one way to address that problem is to provide good education, quality education to poor students so their future can be brighter. And the way to do that is to implement the UniFAST law which has been a law for some time now. And UniFAST really devotes the subsidy to poor students so they can afford the cost of education,” he said.

Pernia also supports increasing allocations for educational programs that will produce more science and technology professionals in the country.

“(T)hat’s what we really need. We are lagging behind our Asean neighbors in the number of scientists, engineers and innovators. And that’s what we want to increase. And in that program (UniFAST), even the more financially capable students are given scholarships and subsidies,” he said.

The Free College Education Bill now awaits President Duterte’s signature, as lawmakers yesterday appealed to him not to veto the bill amid the economic managers’ warnings.