Exclusive - Senators Push For Quick Implementation Of Free Tuition For College But CHED Disagrees! Why? Watch This!

Senator Bam Aquino has expressed confidence in the passing of a bill that would make the dreams of many young Filipinos come true. 

He was happy to say that in the next months, tuition fees will not be a problem anymore as it will become free in state universities and colleges.

The Senate Committee on Education, Arts and Culture, together with the Committee on Finance, held its first public hearing Wednesday on proposals for the government to subsidize the tuition of students in state universities and colleges.

“We’re quite hopeful that this will pass. Mahalaga na mabigyan ng tulong ang ating mahihirap na estudyante sa SUCs. Marami sa amin ang talagang tinutulak ito,” Aquino, chairman of the Senate committee on education, said after its hearing on the measure.

He was confident in the bill’s success for the reason that many senators have pursued the subsidizing of tuition fees in SUCs. 

Six bills of the same nature have been filed thus far by Senators Sonny Angara (SBN133), Francis Pangilinan (SBN962), Sherwin Gatchalian (SBN198), Bam Aquino (SBN177), JV Ejercito (SBN158), and Ralph Recto (SBN61). 

Senator Angara’s bill was slightly different, but in a good way, as it also sought to cover both tuition and miscellaneous fees. He stated that the government should be more focused on tertiary level students because it will make the Philippines more competitive in the labor market.

The Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (COCOPEA) Lawyer Joseph Noel Estrada, legal counsel of COCOPEA, expressed his concern over the likely passing of the bill. He said, “The subsidy granting free college education in SUCs would result…[to] a massive migration of students currently enrolled in private HEIs to the state universities and colleges.”

Aquino expects the bill to be passed by 2017, and its implementation in 2018.

Source: TNP , ABS-CBN