Tuition fees of Filipino Colleges are necessary
Media
Part of Panorama
- Title
- Tuition fees of Filipino Colleges are necessary
- Creator
- Roces, Alfredo R.
- Language
- English
- Year
- 1969
- Subject
- Tuition.
- Private schools -- Philippines.
- Education -- Philippines.
- Rights
-
- Abstract
- From Manila Times, February 1, 1969.
- Fulltext
- TUmON FEES OF FILIPINO COLLEGES ARE NECESSARY The demand of restless de monstrating students for lo wer tuition fees in largescale enrollment private schools, must ultimately con flict with their demands for better quality education. The popular misconception is that some private schools grant their stockholders huge profits, inferring that private schools that are non-profit in character are free from ava rice. The actual situation is that profits are absorbed largely by greedy school ad ministrators who enjoy pri vileges and fat positions but who cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, claim to be academic assets to an educational institution. In other words, it is not just a matter of stockholder di vidends that should be ques tioned, it is the privileges, financial as well as highsalaried official positions, that have to be looked into. We are of the opinion that a simple study on the struc ture of private schools will prove very clearly that fa mily relationship dominates the dynamics of our “edu cational” system. Another aspect of the high-fees controversy involves itemization. In large-enroll ment schools the items would involve specific amounts billed, and the actual right of a student to such items that he has paid for. Medi cal clinic fees would entitle a student to some benefits but in the context of a large enrollment school, a simple check an the existing faci lities would prove it is not possible to accommodate all the students were they to demand these services. For example a free check-up in a small clinic when students are in the tens of thousands, or the exact circulation of a school paper as against the enrollment, presuming that March 1969 25 each student who pays for this is entitled to a copy. In brief, it is a matter of the students wanting to know their exact rights as paid for so that these item ized facilities cannot be pre sented as extra privileges but as paid for items students are entitled to. The two aspects to consi der on the tuition grievance therefore, are the quality and competence of high-sa laried school officials, their privileges and allowances, and the proper obligation of the school to provide the students adequate facilities on items charged in their tuition. This is not as dif ficult as it would seem, if a genuine dialogue were started among the students, faculty, and school adminis tration. A free press in the school, both for faculty and student, would help air the difficulties and expose the avaricious and incompetent who are at present perma nent fixtures of our private educational system. — Alfre do R. Roces in Manila Times, Feb. 1, 1969. MACHINE ADVANTAGES There is great beauty in the machine: the machine has no temper; it does what it is told with no argument; it has endless energy and never gets tired; it will endlessly repeat dull routine tasks without becoming bored and dissatisfied; it has no prejudice; it will treat equally the slum child in the central city and the affluent child. Most im portant, it can be junked, thrown away when it’s worn out or when it becomes obsolete. — Robert Bush, Theory into Practice, December, 1967. 26 Panorama