YOUTH group Anakbayan-National Capital Region today slammed the the Aquino government’s unrelenting approval of tuition and other fees increases both in the basic and tertiary education in more than 1,000 schools combined.
In time for the opening of classes, the militant youths stormed the gates of Mendiola to condemn the state-sponsored commercialization of education.
“This gate houses the penultimate reason behind the worsening education crisis. This is the gate of hell for all the Filipino youths whose dreams will be burned to ashes because we are being deprived of our right to education,” said Anakbayan-NCR Deputy Secretary-General Andrew Zarate.
“Though Dan Brown’s Inferno is a work of fiction, our situation is enough proof to show that hell is already here and it was brought upon us by the Aquino regime who favors only the capitalist educators. Every school gate will be like hell because of the high-priced education and rising cost of living parallel to massive unemployment and low wages,” he said.
Series of mobilizations are set today to mark the youths’ outrage against the worsening education crisis staged at several government institutions responsible for such ‘crime’ namely the Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education and Malacanang. 354 private tertiary schools out of 451 applicants and 241 private elementary and high schools out of 1,144 applicants hiked fees.
He added, “Instead of making quality education accessible to all, this government is the one enabling private schools to hike fees. Though there is a 70-20-10 increment system which will go to salary of teachers, improvement of facilities and return-of-investment respectively, the government has no will nor does it have the resources to check whether the increment system is being implemented.”
The group also said that with the implementation og K+12, “lesser youths will not be able to enter college because they will be honed early as semi-skilled workers. It will be another scheme for the state abandonment on education while the number of state universities and colleges will decline along with the government spending.”
The Department of Budget and Management earlier said that the government will yet again decrease its spending on state universities and colleges despite the turmoil when 16-year old University of the Philippines-Manila student Kristel Tejada committed suicide due to the failures of the Philippine education system.
“Aquino’s grand scheme dubbed as Roadmap to Philippine Higher Education Reform is set to cast a darker future for the Filipino youths. This scheme is the application of neo-liberal policies on education under Aquino – denationalization, privatization, liberalization and deregulation – all of which are present in the system today,” said Zarate.
“The opening of classes will mark the opening of protests against policies and the system that continue to deprive the youths of a better future,” he said.