The Manila Times

Waive entrance fee of poor, bright students, HEIs urged

BY BERNADETTE E. TAMAYO

SEN. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go wants private higher educational institutions (HEIs) to waive the college entrance fee of poor but bright graduating high school (HS) students.

He filed Senate Bill (SB) 1708 which mandates private HEIs to waive college entrance examination fees to underprivileged graduating HS students and HS graduates belonging to the academic top 10 of their class.

“Let us help widen the opportunities of our underprivileged youth, especially the best and the brightest,” the senator said in a statement on Sunday.

He noted that the 1987 Constitution provides that “the State shall protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality education at all levels and to take appropriate steps to make education accessible to all.”

“This clearly states the role of the State in making sure that every citizen has equal access to quality education,” Go said.

He lamented, however, that through the years, the cost of quality education, even in the application stage, continues to rise, making it seemingly unaffordable to underprivileged students given their limited financial capacity.

Under SB 1708 or the proposed “Free College Entrance Examinations Act of 2023,” a student will become eligible as beneficiary if he or she is a natural-born Filipino citizen and seeks to be admitted to a private HEI in the country.

The student must also belong to a family whose combined income falls below the poverty threshold, as determined by the National Economic and Development Authority and the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

Go has pushed for the expansion and further democratization of the access to quality college education in private universities and colleges.

“The exemption from the imposition of entrance examination fees is one such mechanism that shall give adequate assistance and equal opportunity to these students to pursue their dreams of obtaining a college education,” he said.

Last year, he filed SB 1190 which seeks to expand the application of the Special Education Fund (SEF) to other needs of the public education system by amending Republic Act 7160 or the “Local Government Code.”

SB 1190 provides for the expansion of the application of the additional one percent SEF tax to other items relating to education, such as the construction and repair of libraries, and payment of salaries, allowance and other benefits of teaching and nonteaching personnel, to name a few.

Go said SB 1190 “will make the use of the fund less restrictive and will allow local government units to maximize their resources to adopt new education policies and learning techniques that are necessary at this time.”

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2023-01-30T08:00:00.0000000Z

2023-01-30T08:00:00.0000000Z

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The Manila Times