Cayetano fights for students' right to affordable education

By Office of Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano
March 18, 2013

PASAY CITY – “The number one concern of the country’s youth is that education is becoming too expensive. This factors in everything – from tuition fees to transportation costs to go to school,” Senator Alan Cayetano said yesterday in his dialogue with the students of the Pangasinan State University at Rosales, Pangasinan. "I have personally confirmed this through my Listening Tours. This concern resonates among students from the Cordillera Region to Cagayan de Oro in Mindanao."

Cayetano gave his message as he expressed condolences to the family of Kristel Tejada, a 16-year-old Behavioral Science student from UP Manila who committed suicide, allegedly due to her inability to pay for her education.

Cayetano underscored the need to implement more effective student assistance schemes to address this problem.

Cayetano gave the assurance that he, along with his fellow lawmakers, will continue to push for reform and work hand-in-hand with the government to make their promise of a truly accessible education system a reality. “Kristel symbolizes hopelessness. But I promise the country’s youth that a better tomorrow is being built for them. Don’t lose hope,” he said.

“Even if Kristel’s case might be an isolated one, we cannot ignore the reality that so many students' lives are affected because of high tuition fees, school policies, and insufficient support from government,” he said as he revealed how half of high school students drop out, and of those who graduate, only 23 percent enroll in college. “Of this number, only 15 percent graduate from college.”

Lack of quality education means lack of jobs

Cayetano said that the next concern is the quality of education, given the shortages in facilities still hounding our public education system. “We are still lagging behind our Asian neighbors when it comes to education because our public schools lack the facilities needed to produce quality education,” he said.

The senator said that these concerns are rounded up by the lack of employment opportunities that greet students after they graduate. “Now 50 percent of graduates fail to get jobs. All their hard work at making sure they finish college becomes wasted,” he said.

Partner with banks

Cayetano proposed that the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) make it easier for their scholars to access their stipend and loans by partnering with banks. “So instead of them missing a day of study just to get their money, they can instead just withdraw what they need from the partner banks,” he said.