Economic managers push for alternative to free tuition

Instead of free tuition at state universities and colleges, the Duterte administration’s economic managers are pushing for the implementation of a 2014 law that unified and harmonized all financial assistance for students.

In a Feb. 7 position paper submitted to Executive Secretary Salvador C. Medialdea, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III and Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said “the proposed free tuition policy is expected to have little impact on poor  children’s enrollment in college.

The three economic managers instead recommended that the government fully implement the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education (UniFAST) established in 2014 via Republic Act No. 10687.

In a statement Thursday, the National Economic and Development Authority noted that UniFAST was “designed to unify and harmonize all modalities of publicly funded student financial assistance programs such as scholarships, grants-in-aid and student loans for tertiary education.”

“The law provides full financing to deserving students, which generally favors the poor,” Neda added.

As such, “UniFAST provides a more coherent and comprehensive framework to address the educational needs of the students and is better designed to ensure a more efficient and effective use of government funds,” the three economic managers said.

“We recognize that college education is important for Filipinos, based on the results of the focus group discussions and survey on AmBisyon Natin 2040. Many employers also prefer college graduates. However, we need to carefully study our options for helping people achieve their aspirations for higher education, considering other needs,” Pernia said.

According to the economic managers, “the proposed free tuition policy will benefit largely the non-poor students who predominate in state universities and colleges.” Ben O. de Vera