No tuition hike in majority of HEIs: CHED exec

FILE: Commission on Higher Education in UP Diliman Campus, Quezon City (Photo by patrickroque01/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)

MANILA – The majority of higher education institutions in the country did not increase their tuition, an official of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) said on Saturday.

“Pagpasok nitong pandemya na ito, majority of our higher education institutions have not increased their tuition fees (When this pandemic entered, majority of our higher education institutions have not increased their tuition fees),” CHED executive director Cinderella Filipina Benitez-Jaro said in a Laging Handa briefing.

Before the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic, she noted that some HEIs, as early as March, have already applied for an increase in tuition.

At present, CHED is still reviewing the remaining universities and colleges that are requesting for a tuition hike, she said.

CHED earlier said schools are now ready to start classes by August 2020 through a “flexible learning” arrangement or the blended offline-online learning.

Benitez-Jaro said this scheme allows continuity while adapting to the capacity of the students and the institutions.

She noted that HEIs have trained the faculty members and held consultations among students to determine ways to move forward under the so-called “new normal”.

On the other hand, she echoed CHED chairperson Prospero de Vera III’s call on HEIs to move laboratory work and internships to the second semester of the incoming school year.

“As much as possible, we recommend for those who will conduct their laboratory or limited face-to-face classes to do it at the latter part of the semester where the higher education institutions are more prepared,” she said in Filipino.

She also confirmed that more funding was released to the Ifugao State University to augment five of its anti-Covid-19 projects.

Benitez-Jaro said CHED recognizes the efforts of state universities and colleges in finding solutions to cushion the impact of the Covid-19 in their respective communities.

“Alam naman natin na, of course, mayroon pa rin silang financial constraints kaya naman binigyan natin sila ng pondo para sa ganon lalo nila mapaigting ang kanilang pagtulong sa gobyerno and of course sa mga measures natin laban sa Covid-19 (We know that they still have financial constraints that’s why we provided additional funding to boost their efforts to assist the government and of course in our measures to contain the Covid-19),” she said.