Hike of Tuition Fees: Should Private schools reprioritize?

By Phoebe Chellua Sadorra | Editorial Correspondents

Education has always been one of the most affected fields in the pandemic ranging from methods drastically changing to institutions fully shutting in response to lack of resources. Among these responses, tuition fees hiking is one of them.

According to Atty. Noel Estrada Managing Director of the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations of the Philippines (COCOPEA) “We have to consider it in totality. Halimbawa, marami ang hindi nag-enroll, may lumipat, maraming hindi nakabayad, at the same time, babalansehin mo ‘yan. Papaano mo naman… How do you keep your school personnel, your teachers? Kasi ‘yung ‘pag nagtaas ka, ‘yung makukuha mo diyan required ng batas is 70% be given to salaries of personnel and teachers, tapos 20% to facilities.”

The hit private schools took during the pandemic urged heavy change in their system but possibility for request in raising tuition fees reached parents. Concern has been going around with members of the Parents Teachers Association voicing their possible course of action if tuition fees do begin rising. “Wala pong nangyayaring konsultasyon between parents ‘no, tungkol sa mga matrikulang ganyan, tulad ng sinasabi na mayroon daw kung maaari idetermina yung ating tuition hike ‘no kasi medyo galing po tayo sa pandemic at medyo hirap pa po ang ating ekonomiya,” Philippine PTA President Willy Rodriguez stated.

The thought of raising tuition fee prices stemmed from their losses in the first place, the hike being a plan to salvage what was left by the pandemic and a possible way to recover assets of private schools even if it’s just through that crucial 20% owed to the facility by law. Maintaining vicinities while making sure to provide for staff may as well be the goal of private schools but the side of the students and parents respectively show room for reconsideration of what to put first.