HOW to improve the quality of state-funded
higher education in the country?
Give us a higher budget, asked faculty and
student leaders of state universities and colleges
(SUCs) recently, by realigning the billions of pesos in
confidential and intelligence funds (CIFs) budgeted for
next year.
While the House of Representatives already
approved the P100.882-billion appropriation for SUCs
in the 2024 budget, this is lower by P6.155 billion, or
5.75 percent, than this year’s P107.0297-billion allocation.
Students, faculty and staff regents, student
councils and publications, and faculty and employees’ unions of four SUCs, namely University of the
Philippines, Polytechnic University of the Philippines,
Philippine Normal University and Eulogio “Amang” Rodriguez Institute of Science and Technology, signed a
joint statement recently calling on the House and the
Senate to restore the budget cut and even increase
the higher education spending for next year.
This is a reasonable demand that Congress
ought to consider, since
their maintenance and other operating expenses decreased while the capital outlay, which covers long-term
development of facilities, equipment and other institutional investments, had the largest cut.
“Excessive and unnecessary confidential and
intelligence funds should be redirected to revamp our
educational institutions and sustain efforts to recalibrate
and provide long-term holistic learning to Filipino youth
from all walks of life,” they said.
We agree completely.
Among the problems of SUCs is that teachers
have no job security due to the lack of plantilla positions
in the government.
The lack of permanent teaching positions results in heavier workload for instructors, professors,
including teaching assistants and fellows, the SUCs
lamented.
The PUP, for instance, faces the dire prospect
of a P3.9-billion budget cut from the P6.9-billion proposal
of the university.
Among the challenges at the university are the
shortages in classrooms and laboratories, the lack of
spaces for learning and organizations, and frequent
power outages.
While another SUC, the Philippine Normal
University, is projected to receive a 5.8-percent increase in its total budget, 6.73-percent increase for
personnel services and 1.8-percent increase for maintenance and operating expenses, these increases,
however, are still not enough to address the lack of
classrooms and facilities in the school that trains future
teachers.
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, chairman of the
Senate Committee on Education, has vowed to divert
some of the intelligence funds allocated in the 2024
budget for several national government offices to cover the P4.1-billion shortfall in the free higher education
program of SUCs.
Can he do it?
We expect him to move heaven and earth to
give SUCs a higher budget for 2024 and subsequent
years.
If he succeeds, then he would really be paving the way for a better future for the Filipino youth.
