CHED: Free college education law best strategy to fight poverty

The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) said Wednesday that continued implementation of the law providing free college education is the best anti-poverty measure that the country can implement.

CHED chairperson Prospero de Vera III made the response when asked by lawmakers if he agrees with Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno’s comment that the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education law or free college education in state-run universities and colleges is an unsustainable program and is anti-poor.

“Our role is to implement the law, and as I have said in our presentation, the highest return of investment, at 17%, is gained from a student who finished college. It is 7% for a student who finished secondary education, and 10% for a student who finished primary education. That [figure] should already alert us to invest in higher education,” de Vera said.

“That is the best anti-poverty strategy: we educate the young and make them employable. When and how will we produce highly skilled manpower if we do not fund higher education? If we do not fund higher education, then we would be at the disadvantage,” he added.

Further, the CHED head said that the free college education law has increased the participation rate or percentage of college-age population aged 15 to 25 enrolled in baccalaureate programs in higher educational institutions (HEI) to 42% in school year 2022 to 2023 from 32% in 2016 to 2017 or prior to the law’s passing in 2018.

“The results are there. The participation rate has significantly increased,” de Vera said.

De Vera said such increased participation rate also paved the way for first generation graduates, meaning those students who are the first to go to college in the family and the first one in the family to become a college graduate.

“This is a documented phenomenon, and this ensures that the [future] children of these students won’t experience the same poverty they experienced. I don’t think anything is better than investing in our young,” he said.

Kabataan party-list  Representative Raoul Manuel called out Diokno for making such comments by stressing that the access to quality education is a right, not privilege.

“Ang edukasyon ay karapatan at hindi ito kailanman naging ‘investment’ lamang o pribilehiyo na binibigay lang sa mga karapat-dapat. Kung gusto natin na mabigyan ng pagkakataon ang mas marami pang mga kabataan na makapag-aral sa ating SUCs, marami tayong posibleng sustainable na pagkukuhanan ng pondo para rito,” Manuel, one of the authors of the free college education law, said.

(Education is a right, not an investment or a privilege to those deserving. If we want to give our youth the opportunity to study college, we have other sources of funds.)

“Sa pagkwestyon ng isang Cabinet official sa 'sustainability' ng free higher education at sa P6.16 billion na kaltas sa pondo ng ating SUCs, tila hindi prayoridad ng ating gobyerno ang pagpaaaral sa ating mga mag-aaral. Kung tunay ngang binibigyang-halaga ng administrasyon ni Marcos Jr. ang sektor ng edukasyon, hindi nila talaga dapat titipirin ang pondo para rito,” Manuel added.

(A Cabinet official questioning the sustainability of free higher education and the P6.16 billion budget cut for SUCs shows that it seems that giving access to quality education is not a priority of the Marcos, Jr. administration. Otherwise, they would not scrimp on the budget for this.)—LDF, GMA Integrated News