spark
May 26, 2002, 10:07 AM
Sometimes it is fascinating how some people, like Bulldog, give tremendous effort just to malign the reputation of schools other than their own when no considerable, if there's any, gain could be achieved from those actions. These people only feed their insecurities and make themselves look so pathetic.
To set the record straight, in an article entitled "Beneath the skin of Philippine Tertiary Insitutions", which Bulldog so maliciously altered and posted here, DLSU was rated as a Category A school and not B.
If you want to see it for yourself, go to www.tribune.net.ph, then go to the archives section and look for the Sept 9, 2001 issue. go to the Perspective section and you'll see the truth in front of you.
I wonder why Bulldog is bursting with hatred for DLSU. What's in DLSU that scares you so much? Is it because DLSU represents something that you can never have but always aspired for? Or is DLSU such a worthy rival to your school that you always feel threatened by its success in its pursuit of academic excellence? Buddy, that's not the right way to handle your insecurities, it's not healthy for you. Next time, think about yourself before posting anything on this message board, because your posts don't say anything about DLSU at all but rather about yourself and the kind of schooling you are receiving which, i believe, is worth much less than what you are paying for your tuition.
Below is an unaltered copy of the article...
Beneath the skin of Philippine tertiary institutions
By Angel G. Alegre
Sunday, 09 09, 2001
Giorvinne Yambao, who comes from a middle-income family, finished high school in one of the prominent co-education secondary schools in Metro Manila. An average student as she professed, takes pride for being able to study in one of the few "elite" tertiary schools in the metropolis. She is now a freshman taking up liberal arts at Miriam College in Quezon City.
University of the Philippines
In the case of Wilson Lombog, also an average student, contents himself in a not-so-prominent university in Manila. Unlike Giorvinne, Wilson comes from the low-income bracket of the society. He is a freshman taking up Chemical Engineering at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila.
What unites the two students, is their common goal of getting a good job the moment they finish college.
"There are many schools here (Philippines) but my choices limit to those which offer affordable tuition," Wilson said.
"But this early, my aspiration of having a job right after graduation is being dampened by companies which require their applicants to be graduates of UP, Ateneo, De La Salle or those schools which charge high tuition," he added.
In the Philippines, there exists a general notion of equating education to high tuition. A random survey of graduating high school students in Metro Manila showed majority of would-be college students either want to enter Ateneo, La Salle or the University of Sto. Tomas because of prominence, either brought by their projected image of being "elite" or academic reputation.
"In the Philippines, it has become almost a status symbol among the Philippine elite to send their children to schools that charge high tuition," said Rev. Fr. Rolando dela Rosa, OP, former rector of the University of Sto. Tomas.
The University of the Philippines, considered as the premier State University in the country, emerged as the favorite choice. But common perception pervading among senior high school students dictates UP's intimidating academic environment which shuns students with average intellectual capacity. This makes general students narrow their choices to private sectarian schools known for what the media, which include the advertising world, labeled them.
The Philippines has an existing culture of extolling the upper class, making the rich as the yardstick for excellence in various areas — intellectual ability or otherwise. They have become, as it were, icons for devotion. This stream of aristocratic devotion is but some of the Iberian dregs Filipinos inherited during the Spanish regime where the ilustrados were given preferential treatment by the governing state.
Although it is not an elitist school if we are to speak of the amount of tuition it charges to its students, the University of Sto. Tomas manages to attract a considerable number of high school applicants compared to Ateneo and De La Salle.
Fr. Dionisio Cabezon, OP, director of the UST Testing Center, said for this school year, UST received about 40,000 graduating high school applicants and roughly 7,000 were accepted. While the Ateneo and De La Salle got about 18,000 and 25,000 applicants, respectively with roughly 15 percent and 20 percent got accepted.
In the recent survey conducted by Fund Assistance for Private Education (FAPE), most companies in the country prefer hiring applicants who are graduates from big universities and some exclusive colleges in Metro Manila. Graduates from schools that are projecting a low-profile image but nonetheless perform quite well in government licensure examinations were nowhere in the list.
"Again, that's because of the notion that only the elite schools can produce good graduates. They equate quality education to high tuition," said Dr. Mona Valisno of the Commission of Higher Education (Ched).
According to Ched, one of the effective ways of gauging the quality of a school's performance is through the achievement in the government's licensure or board examinations given by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC).
In a recent report released by the PRC analyzing the performance of 875 colleges and universities in government licensure examinations for the period 1994 to 1998, the agency came out with a list of 10 leading schools that registered high passing rates (HPR) in 10 or more licensure examinations. These schools are (1) University of the Philippines-Diliman, (2) University of Sto. Tomas, (3) Xavier University, (4) Silliman University, (5) Central Philippine University, (6) St. Louis University, (7) De La Salle University-Dasmariñas, (8) Mariano Marcos State University, (9) St. Paul University and (10) Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila.
Out of the 875 higher education institutions the PRC reported, 199 registered high passing rate in at least one licensure examination. Fifty-six of these high-performing institutions are government schools and 143 are privately owned.
Valisno said aside from a school's performance in government licensure examinations, other way of measuring a school's quality was through the number of centers of excellence (COE) and centers of development (COD) Ched is granting per discipline a university or college offers. This scheme was introduced in 1994 to spur colleges and universities to strive for global excellence.
To be able to receive a COE status, Valisno explained the school must meet certain criteria such as profile of the teaching faculty, performance in board examinations, instructional facilities and research capabilities. A grant of P3 million is bestowed for a discipline with COE status and P1 million for COD. Incentives can be used for faculty development, upgrading of facilities, scholarship or professional chairs.
Based on the recent data furnished by Ched, it is quite disheartening to note that among the 78 tertiary institutions monitored by the agency, only 40 colleges and universities received COE status while the rest got a COD recognition. Of course, a university or college can get as many COEs or CODs as long as the field of specialization it offers meet the criteria imposed by the technical panel of Ched.
In the National Capital Region (NCR) where the supposed crème dela crème higher learning institutions are concentrated, only six institutions received COE and COD recognitions while five got a COD status only.
The University of the Philippines-Diliman got the most number of COEs with 23 disciplines granted; followed by the University of Sto. Tomas, 11; De La Salle University, 10; Ateneo, 9; and UP-Manila and Philippine Normal University both have 2 COEs. (pls. refer to chart).
"Budget plays a significant role. We can only grant incentives based on our financial capabilities. If we see some schools deserving of a COE status but our budget says we have to restrict, then we have to abide at the expense of continued excellence," Valisno said.
Last year, the share of higher education from the overall budget of the national government accounted for was mere 2.54 percent or an equivalent of P16.909 billion. Pejorative or not, this puts the Philippines on the top list of 44 countries surveyed by the World Bank on the private sector share in higher education, which means resources needed by the country's higher education come more from the pockets of the students and parents.
And considering the rather sad affair of the country's economy, it is not surprising that only 199 out of 875 colleges and universities registered a high passing rate in at least one licensure examination while the rest are either declared as average performing, low performing or zero performing. A zero performing is classified if none of a school's examinees passed any board examination in the five-year period covered by the PRC study.
"What it is tragic about is, in spite of this sorry state of affairs it is expected that students will continue to pour into the various higher learning institutions regardless of their quality. This is likely to happen because Filipinos put a very high premium on college education," said Dr. Reynaldo Peña of Ched.
"Parents are willing to part their precious possessions In exchange for that piece of sheepskin called diploma, " he added.
The Ched said one of the indicators of quality of higher education that can be considered also is the acceptability of Philippine graduates abroad. This was one of the concerns of the Ched in formulating its strategies for excellence in the country's higher learning institutions in the 21st century. To actualize this, interviews were conducted by the sub task force on quality and comparability of Ched with officials of seven embassies of different countries namely Great Britain, France, Finland, Denmark, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates and Jordan to determine which Philippine schools are accredited or recognized by these countries.
The interviews revealed university of the Philippines was the most frequently mentioned Philippine school, followed by University of Sto. Tomas, De La Salle University and Ateneo de Manila University. These schools, along with the Asian Institute of Management were rated category A, which means excellent.
"However, while the UP was the most frequently mentioned, the reason given was mainly of its being a state university," the Task Force said in its study titled "Philippine Higher Education in the 21st Century: Toward Excellence and Equity."
The same goes for the National Office of Overseas Skills Recognition (Noosr) of the Department of Employment, Education and Training of Australia which rated UP, UST, Ateneo, DLSU and AIM as category A which means these institutions meet international standards in the way they are understood and accepted in Australia.
Sad to say other Philippine schools which have been perceived to be "elite" because of the apparent high tuition they charge and that understood by the society as one of the best tertiary schools in the country were rated in category B or do not completely meet international standards.
According to Peña, over P42 billion was virtually wasted by a group of college graduates from 1994 to 1998. This group, he said, consisted of the total number of non-passers in the 41 licensure examinations given by the PRC for the five-year period.
Going back to the latest PRC study, only 37 percent or 313,199 examinees out of the total 840,148 examinees passed the board exams during the five-year period. This leaves 526,949 or 63 percent of the takers who failed in the government licensure examinations.
"Based on a yearly average of P10,000 for tuition and other fees paid by each of the 526,949 non-passers, plus an annual average per capita living expenses of P10,000 the hard earned money shelled out by their parents totaled to a staggering P42.155 billion; and sadly this amount went done the drain because the non-passers did not become the professionals that they had wanted to be," Peña said.
The Philippines has more than 1,090 colleges and universities, more than 50 percent of the total number are privately owned, owing to inability of the national government to shoulder bulk of the costs of putting up learning institutions. And since the government cannot afford to shell out financial subsidies to private schools in as much as it wants to uplift the quality of education, privately owned tertiary institutions seem to have no choice but to subsist principally on tuition.
Private school administrators argue that the only way to improve the quality of education is through the costs of investment a school would put in. Thus, if we were to follow the thread of their argument, it would seem clear that the higher the tuition, the better the quality of education offered by a school.
Here is a rundown of the list of tertiary institutions in Metro Manila with their corresponding tuition per unit for the academic year 2001-2002.
University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P)
Ateneo de Manila University
De La Salle University
Miriam College
St. Scholastica's College
Assumption College
Mapua Institute of Technology
AMA Computer College
College of the Holy Spirit
San Beda College
St. Joseph's College
University of Sto. Tomas
Colegio de San Juan de Letran
Trinity College
Far Eastern University
San Sebastian College
Philippine Women's University
St. Paul's College (Manila)
University of the East
Manuel L. Quezon University
Lyceum University
Manila Central University
National University
Adamson University
Perpetual Help College
Centro Escolar University
Feati University
Technological Institute of the Philippines
PATTS
University of the Philippines
Philippine Christian University
Philippine Normal University
Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila
Polytechnic University of the Philippines
P1,583.00
P1,441.90
P1,247.00
P1,180.00
P1,022.00
P969.00
P950.00
P760.69
P747.04
P700.00
P690.24
P622.60
P550.00
P549.00
P534.00
P511.20
P470.00
P453.85
P437.00
P448.00
P445.00
P378.00
P366.00
P349.00
P345.34
P343.00
P328.20
P309.00
P300.00
P300.00
P294.00
P250.00
P67.00
P12.00
Based on the figure given above, average tuition per semester ranges from P800 to as much as P40,000 for a regular load of 21 units. It is noteworthy to stress whether those schools that charge high tuition can really be considered as at par with their Asian counterparts. Apparently, there are schools in the list that charge very high tuition but do not earn COE and COD recognitions from Ched or did not simply perform quite well in the government's licensure examination if we are going to base on the PRC's recent five-year study.
Of course there are myriad factors that necessitate a reality check whether students of these schools do really get the value of the tuition they pay. We have to consider other variables such as facilities and recognition from local and international peers.
Among the schools listed above, one would take notice the wide disparity of the tuition per unit being charged by the University of Sto. Tomas compared from the tuition of its peers or even those schools that were not even rated at par with Asian tertiary institutions. Considering the UST's low tuition and the kind of education it offers, the university's experience itself could serve as a statement that high tuition need not equate with quality education — a belief embraced by most Filipinos.
"We do not agree to the idea that education should be treated as a commodity. We believe that the teaching profession is a mission not a profitable enterprise," Father Cabezon of the UST said.
The UST official added while the pontifical university might be a victim of the popular notion that only the "elite" schools provide quality education as evident in most local placement ads which require applicants to be graduates of certain elite schools,"the view is not well accepted abroad insofar as UST's academic reputation is concerned."
father Cabezon cited UST's impressive linkages with 34 big educational institutions in Europe, America and Asia such as the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom; the University of Strathclyde in Scotland; the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium; Maastricht University, the Netherlands; the Royal Society of London; Boston University; University of Oklahoma; University of Arizona; Kyoto University; and the National University of Singapore, among others.
"We are not an elitist school and yet look at how UST is recognized abroad. These already indicate UST's global acceptability," he said. "Of course, to establish academic consortia with big universities abroad, the quality of the programs you offer as well as the facilities of the school must at least meet the standards of the cooperating institution. In the Asiaweek survey of Asia's best universities for year 2000, only four Philippine universities managed to land in the survey. These are UP, Ateneo, DLSU and UST. The results received harangue from critics in the region including our very own UP who questioned the publication's method in conducting the survey. This had prompted a number of big universities in the region not to participate anymore in the coming surveys. As if admitting that the survey's method was flawed, Asiaweek decided to not to continue the controversial survey.
In the meantime, the rise in the costs of education appears to be incessant, given the yearly tuition increases from these schools, which they claim as necessary to improve the quality of education.
In a country where poverty incidence is substantially high, is it not a moral obligation for private sectarian schools to consider the welfare of the majority by offering quality education without ripping you off?
The latest data from the National Statistics Coordinating Board (NSCB) revealed that poverty incidence in the Philippines or the proportion of families with income below the poverty line increased from 31.8 percent in 1997 to 34.2 percent in 2000. In proportion to the population, poverty incidence rose from 36.8 percent in 1997 to a staggering 400 percent last year.
It is not therefore surprising if out-of-school youth incidence in the Philippines continues to rise given the prohibitive costs of education. Compounding the problem is the distressing habit of companies requiring job seekers to be graduates from certain "elite" tertiary institutions that contribute to the country's unemployment rate. As of April this year, the country's unemployment rate rose to 13.3 percent — the highest in 14 months.
According to Ched, there were 373,387 college students who graduated this year and based on government estimates only 2.5 percent of the total graduates have been employed based on their desired job. These graduates mostly belong to the upper bracket of the society who were educated from the "high-profile" schools.
On the other hand, graduates who come from the lower class of the society and were educated in low-keyed schools but nonetheless performing quite well like the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) and Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) have to content themselves to low-paying jobs mostly finding themselves as sales persons, etc. or in abroad working as contractual workers.
Now here comes the financial statement of selected private tertiary institutions. The public may not be aware that the country's so-called crème de la crème private tertiary institutions, which are mostly sectarian were raking in millions of pesos in revenues.
Data available from the Securities and Exchange Commission are the 1999 financial statements of the non-stock, non-profit educational institutions. Here is a rundown of selected tertiary institutions with their corresponding gross revenues and net income for the academic year ending 1999.
Institution Gross Revenues Net Income
University of Sto. Tomas P678.496 million P10.874 million
Ateneo de Manila University P636.466 million P15.463 million
De La Salle University-Manila P462.098 million P6.731 million
Miriam College Foundation Inc. P275.466 million P18.35 million
University of Asia and the Pacific P211.793 million P0.765 million
Assumption College Inc. P192.246 million P42.034 million
A close scrutiny of their financial statements show that bulk of their revenues mainly derive from their tuition collection. Although UST has the lowest tuition among the six schools surveyed, the Dominican-run institution still topped the tuition revenue category with earnings amounted to P525.656 million. This is due to the schools higher student population which has about 30,000 students.
Wilson Lombog, freshman student from PLM who is rather irresolute about his fate in the corporate world three years from now, bemoaned schools that shield them from the need to offer their tertiary programs at low rates all the while maintaining a high degree of profitability.
"Where are their social responsibilities? Aren't they (sectarian schools) supposed to be the paragon of equality; an education that cares?" Wilson asked.
"Even if they mold their students to be 'man for others' or let's say, that motto from Taft which says they educate the rich to help the poor, would still end up meaningless. What happened to Erap (ex-President Joseph Estrada), did he end up to be the 'man for others?' Why do the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer? Their mottos actually don't make sense," Wilson opined.
In the meantime, hundreds of thousands of students like Wilson have to satisfy themselves with relatively inexpensive schools. Their parents have to make ends meet to be able to send them to college and fulfill the promise of a better life. Sad is, the promise is often realized in the domestic service sector, sidetracked by graduates of schools that cater to the upper middle class' and the elite or those schools that produce trend-setting collegialas.
To set the record straight, in an article entitled "Beneath the skin of Philippine Tertiary Insitutions", which Bulldog so maliciously altered and posted here, DLSU was rated as a Category A school and not B.
If you want to see it for yourself, go to www.tribune.net.ph, then go to the archives section and look for the Sept 9, 2001 issue. go to the Perspective section and you'll see the truth in front of you.
I wonder why Bulldog is bursting with hatred for DLSU. What's in DLSU that scares you so much? Is it because DLSU represents something that you can never have but always aspired for? Or is DLSU such a worthy rival to your school that you always feel threatened by its success in its pursuit of academic excellence? Buddy, that's not the right way to handle your insecurities, it's not healthy for you. Next time, think about yourself before posting anything on this message board, because your posts don't say anything about DLSU at all but rather about yourself and the kind of schooling you are receiving which, i believe, is worth much less than what you are paying for your tuition.
Below is an unaltered copy of the article...
Beneath the skin of Philippine tertiary institutions
By Angel G. Alegre
Sunday, 09 09, 2001
Giorvinne Yambao, who comes from a middle-income family, finished high school in one of the prominent co-education secondary schools in Metro Manila. An average student as she professed, takes pride for being able to study in one of the few "elite" tertiary schools in the metropolis. She is now a freshman taking up liberal arts at Miriam College in Quezon City.
University of the Philippines
In the case of Wilson Lombog, also an average student, contents himself in a not-so-prominent university in Manila. Unlike Giorvinne, Wilson comes from the low-income bracket of the society. He is a freshman taking up Chemical Engineering at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila.
What unites the two students, is their common goal of getting a good job the moment they finish college.
"There are many schools here (Philippines) but my choices limit to those which offer affordable tuition," Wilson said.
"But this early, my aspiration of having a job right after graduation is being dampened by companies which require their applicants to be graduates of UP, Ateneo, De La Salle or those schools which charge high tuition," he added.
In the Philippines, there exists a general notion of equating education to high tuition. A random survey of graduating high school students in Metro Manila showed majority of would-be college students either want to enter Ateneo, La Salle or the University of Sto. Tomas because of prominence, either brought by their projected image of being "elite" or academic reputation.
"In the Philippines, it has become almost a status symbol among the Philippine elite to send their children to schools that charge high tuition," said Rev. Fr. Rolando dela Rosa, OP, former rector of the University of Sto. Tomas.
The University of the Philippines, considered as the premier State University in the country, emerged as the favorite choice. But common perception pervading among senior high school students dictates UP's intimidating academic environment which shuns students with average intellectual capacity. This makes general students narrow their choices to private sectarian schools known for what the media, which include the advertising world, labeled them.
The Philippines has an existing culture of extolling the upper class, making the rich as the yardstick for excellence in various areas — intellectual ability or otherwise. They have become, as it were, icons for devotion. This stream of aristocratic devotion is but some of the Iberian dregs Filipinos inherited during the Spanish regime where the ilustrados were given preferential treatment by the governing state.
Although it is not an elitist school if we are to speak of the amount of tuition it charges to its students, the University of Sto. Tomas manages to attract a considerable number of high school applicants compared to Ateneo and De La Salle.
Fr. Dionisio Cabezon, OP, director of the UST Testing Center, said for this school year, UST received about 40,000 graduating high school applicants and roughly 7,000 were accepted. While the Ateneo and De La Salle got about 18,000 and 25,000 applicants, respectively with roughly 15 percent and 20 percent got accepted.
In the recent survey conducted by Fund Assistance for Private Education (FAPE), most companies in the country prefer hiring applicants who are graduates from big universities and some exclusive colleges in Metro Manila. Graduates from schools that are projecting a low-profile image but nonetheless perform quite well in government licensure examinations were nowhere in the list.
"Again, that's because of the notion that only the elite schools can produce good graduates. They equate quality education to high tuition," said Dr. Mona Valisno of the Commission of Higher Education (Ched).
According to Ched, one of the effective ways of gauging the quality of a school's performance is through the achievement in the government's licensure or board examinations given by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC).
In a recent report released by the PRC analyzing the performance of 875 colleges and universities in government licensure examinations for the period 1994 to 1998, the agency came out with a list of 10 leading schools that registered high passing rates (HPR) in 10 or more licensure examinations. These schools are (1) University of the Philippines-Diliman, (2) University of Sto. Tomas, (3) Xavier University, (4) Silliman University, (5) Central Philippine University, (6) St. Louis University, (7) De La Salle University-Dasmariñas, (8) Mariano Marcos State University, (9) St. Paul University and (10) Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila.
Out of the 875 higher education institutions the PRC reported, 199 registered high passing rate in at least one licensure examination. Fifty-six of these high-performing institutions are government schools and 143 are privately owned.
Valisno said aside from a school's performance in government licensure examinations, other way of measuring a school's quality was through the number of centers of excellence (COE) and centers of development (COD) Ched is granting per discipline a university or college offers. This scheme was introduced in 1994 to spur colleges and universities to strive for global excellence.
To be able to receive a COE status, Valisno explained the school must meet certain criteria such as profile of the teaching faculty, performance in board examinations, instructional facilities and research capabilities. A grant of P3 million is bestowed for a discipline with COE status and P1 million for COD. Incentives can be used for faculty development, upgrading of facilities, scholarship or professional chairs.
Based on the recent data furnished by Ched, it is quite disheartening to note that among the 78 tertiary institutions monitored by the agency, only 40 colleges and universities received COE status while the rest got a COD recognition. Of course, a university or college can get as many COEs or CODs as long as the field of specialization it offers meet the criteria imposed by the technical panel of Ched.
In the National Capital Region (NCR) where the supposed crème dela crème higher learning institutions are concentrated, only six institutions received COE and COD recognitions while five got a COD status only.
The University of the Philippines-Diliman got the most number of COEs with 23 disciplines granted; followed by the University of Sto. Tomas, 11; De La Salle University, 10; Ateneo, 9; and UP-Manila and Philippine Normal University both have 2 COEs. (pls. refer to chart).
"Budget plays a significant role. We can only grant incentives based on our financial capabilities. If we see some schools deserving of a COE status but our budget says we have to restrict, then we have to abide at the expense of continued excellence," Valisno said.
Last year, the share of higher education from the overall budget of the national government accounted for was mere 2.54 percent or an equivalent of P16.909 billion. Pejorative or not, this puts the Philippines on the top list of 44 countries surveyed by the World Bank on the private sector share in higher education, which means resources needed by the country's higher education come more from the pockets of the students and parents.
And considering the rather sad affair of the country's economy, it is not surprising that only 199 out of 875 colleges and universities registered a high passing rate in at least one licensure examination while the rest are either declared as average performing, low performing or zero performing. A zero performing is classified if none of a school's examinees passed any board examination in the five-year period covered by the PRC study.
"What it is tragic about is, in spite of this sorry state of affairs it is expected that students will continue to pour into the various higher learning institutions regardless of their quality. This is likely to happen because Filipinos put a very high premium on college education," said Dr. Reynaldo Peña of Ched.
"Parents are willing to part their precious possessions In exchange for that piece of sheepskin called diploma, " he added.
The Ched said one of the indicators of quality of higher education that can be considered also is the acceptability of Philippine graduates abroad. This was one of the concerns of the Ched in formulating its strategies for excellence in the country's higher learning institutions in the 21st century. To actualize this, interviews were conducted by the sub task force on quality and comparability of Ched with officials of seven embassies of different countries namely Great Britain, France, Finland, Denmark, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates and Jordan to determine which Philippine schools are accredited or recognized by these countries.
The interviews revealed university of the Philippines was the most frequently mentioned Philippine school, followed by University of Sto. Tomas, De La Salle University and Ateneo de Manila University. These schools, along with the Asian Institute of Management were rated category A, which means excellent.
"However, while the UP was the most frequently mentioned, the reason given was mainly of its being a state university," the Task Force said in its study titled "Philippine Higher Education in the 21st Century: Toward Excellence and Equity."
The same goes for the National Office of Overseas Skills Recognition (Noosr) of the Department of Employment, Education and Training of Australia which rated UP, UST, Ateneo, DLSU and AIM as category A which means these institutions meet international standards in the way they are understood and accepted in Australia.
Sad to say other Philippine schools which have been perceived to be "elite" because of the apparent high tuition they charge and that understood by the society as one of the best tertiary schools in the country were rated in category B or do not completely meet international standards.
According to Peña, over P42 billion was virtually wasted by a group of college graduates from 1994 to 1998. This group, he said, consisted of the total number of non-passers in the 41 licensure examinations given by the PRC for the five-year period.
Going back to the latest PRC study, only 37 percent or 313,199 examinees out of the total 840,148 examinees passed the board exams during the five-year period. This leaves 526,949 or 63 percent of the takers who failed in the government licensure examinations.
"Based on a yearly average of P10,000 for tuition and other fees paid by each of the 526,949 non-passers, plus an annual average per capita living expenses of P10,000 the hard earned money shelled out by their parents totaled to a staggering P42.155 billion; and sadly this amount went done the drain because the non-passers did not become the professionals that they had wanted to be," Peña said.
The Philippines has more than 1,090 colleges and universities, more than 50 percent of the total number are privately owned, owing to inability of the national government to shoulder bulk of the costs of putting up learning institutions. And since the government cannot afford to shell out financial subsidies to private schools in as much as it wants to uplift the quality of education, privately owned tertiary institutions seem to have no choice but to subsist principally on tuition.
Private school administrators argue that the only way to improve the quality of education is through the costs of investment a school would put in. Thus, if we were to follow the thread of their argument, it would seem clear that the higher the tuition, the better the quality of education offered by a school.
Here is a rundown of the list of tertiary institutions in Metro Manila with their corresponding tuition per unit for the academic year 2001-2002.
University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P)
Ateneo de Manila University
De La Salle University
Miriam College
St. Scholastica's College
Assumption College
Mapua Institute of Technology
AMA Computer College
College of the Holy Spirit
San Beda College
St. Joseph's College
University of Sto. Tomas
Colegio de San Juan de Letran
Trinity College
Far Eastern University
San Sebastian College
Philippine Women's University
St. Paul's College (Manila)
University of the East
Manuel L. Quezon University
Lyceum University
Manila Central University
National University
Adamson University
Perpetual Help College
Centro Escolar University
Feati University
Technological Institute of the Philippines
PATTS
University of the Philippines
Philippine Christian University
Philippine Normal University
Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila
Polytechnic University of the Philippines
P1,583.00
P1,441.90
P1,247.00
P1,180.00
P1,022.00
P969.00
P950.00
P760.69
P747.04
P700.00
P690.24
P622.60
P550.00
P549.00
P534.00
P511.20
P470.00
P453.85
P437.00
P448.00
P445.00
P378.00
P366.00
P349.00
P345.34
P343.00
P328.20
P309.00
P300.00
P300.00
P294.00
P250.00
P67.00
P12.00
Based on the figure given above, average tuition per semester ranges from P800 to as much as P40,000 for a regular load of 21 units. It is noteworthy to stress whether those schools that charge high tuition can really be considered as at par with their Asian counterparts. Apparently, there are schools in the list that charge very high tuition but do not earn COE and COD recognitions from Ched or did not simply perform quite well in the government's licensure examination if we are going to base on the PRC's recent five-year study.
Of course there are myriad factors that necessitate a reality check whether students of these schools do really get the value of the tuition they pay. We have to consider other variables such as facilities and recognition from local and international peers.
Among the schools listed above, one would take notice the wide disparity of the tuition per unit being charged by the University of Sto. Tomas compared from the tuition of its peers or even those schools that were not even rated at par with Asian tertiary institutions. Considering the UST's low tuition and the kind of education it offers, the university's experience itself could serve as a statement that high tuition need not equate with quality education — a belief embraced by most Filipinos.
"We do not agree to the idea that education should be treated as a commodity. We believe that the teaching profession is a mission not a profitable enterprise," Father Cabezon of the UST said.
The UST official added while the pontifical university might be a victim of the popular notion that only the "elite" schools provide quality education as evident in most local placement ads which require applicants to be graduates of certain elite schools,"the view is not well accepted abroad insofar as UST's academic reputation is concerned."
father Cabezon cited UST's impressive linkages with 34 big educational institutions in Europe, America and Asia such as the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom; the University of Strathclyde in Scotland; the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium; Maastricht University, the Netherlands; the Royal Society of London; Boston University; University of Oklahoma; University of Arizona; Kyoto University; and the National University of Singapore, among others.
"We are not an elitist school and yet look at how UST is recognized abroad. These already indicate UST's global acceptability," he said. "Of course, to establish academic consortia with big universities abroad, the quality of the programs you offer as well as the facilities of the school must at least meet the standards of the cooperating institution. In the Asiaweek survey of Asia's best universities for year 2000, only four Philippine universities managed to land in the survey. These are UP, Ateneo, DLSU and UST. The results received harangue from critics in the region including our very own UP who questioned the publication's method in conducting the survey. This had prompted a number of big universities in the region not to participate anymore in the coming surveys. As if admitting that the survey's method was flawed, Asiaweek decided to not to continue the controversial survey.
In the meantime, the rise in the costs of education appears to be incessant, given the yearly tuition increases from these schools, which they claim as necessary to improve the quality of education.
In a country where poverty incidence is substantially high, is it not a moral obligation for private sectarian schools to consider the welfare of the majority by offering quality education without ripping you off?
The latest data from the National Statistics Coordinating Board (NSCB) revealed that poverty incidence in the Philippines or the proportion of families with income below the poverty line increased from 31.8 percent in 1997 to 34.2 percent in 2000. In proportion to the population, poverty incidence rose from 36.8 percent in 1997 to a staggering 400 percent last year.
It is not therefore surprising if out-of-school youth incidence in the Philippines continues to rise given the prohibitive costs of education. Compounding the problem is the distressing habit of companies requiring job seekers to be graduates from certain "elite" tertiary institutions that contribute to the country's unemployment rate. As of April this year, the country's unemployment rate rose to 13.3 percent — the highest in 14 months.
According to Ched, there were 373,387 college students who graduated this year and based on government estimates only 2.5 percent of the total graduates have been employed based on their desired job. These graduates mostly belong to the upper bracket of the society who were educated from the "high-profile" schools.
On the other hand, graduates who come from the lower class of the society and were educated in low-keyed schools but nonetheless performing quite well like the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) and Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) have to content themselves to low-paying jobs mostly finding themselves as sales persons, etc. or in abroad working as contractual workers.
Now here comes the financial statement of selected private tertiary institutions. The public may not be aware that the country's so-called crème de la crème private tertiary institutions, which are mostly sectarian were raking in millions of pesos in revenues.
Data available from the Securities and Exchange Commission are the 1999 financial statements of the non-stock, non-profit educational institutions. Here is a rundown of selected tertiary institutions with their corresponding gross revenues and net income for the academic year ending 1999.
Institution Gross Revenues Net Income
University of Sto. Tomas P678.496 million P10.874 million
Ateneo de Manila University P636.466 million P15.463 million
De La Salle University-Manila P462.098 million P6.731 million
Miriam College Foundation Inc. P275.466 million P18.35 million
University of Asia and the Pacific P211.793 million P0.765 million
Assumption College Inc. P192.246 million P42.034 million
A close scrutiny of their financial statements show that bulk of their revenues mainly derive from their tuition collection. Although UST has the lowest tuition among the six schools surveyed, the Dominican-run institution still topped the tuition revenue category with earnings amounted to P525.656 million. This is due to the schools higher student population which has about 30,000 students.
Wilson Lombog, freshman student from PLM who is rather irresolute about his fate in the corporate world three years from now, bemoaned schools that shield them from the need to offer their tertiary programs at low rates all the while maintaining a high degree of profitability.
"Where are their social responsibilities? Aren't they (sectarian schools) supposed to be the paragon of equality; an education that cares?" Wilson asked.
"Even if they mold their students to be 'man for others' or let's say, that motto from Taft which says they educate the rich to help the poor, would still end up meaningless. What happened to Erap (ex-President Joseph Estrada), did he end up to be the 'man for others?' Why do the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer? Their mottos actually don't make sense," Wilson opined.
In the meantime, hundreds of thousands of students like Wilson have to satisfy themselves with relatively inexpensive schools. Their parents have to make ends meet to be able to send them to college and fulfill the promise of a better life. Sad is, the promise is often realized in the domestic service sector, sidetracked by graduates of schools that cater to the upper middle class' and the elite or those schools that produce trend-setting collegialas.