CHED's De Vera wants college admission tests focused on equity

Commission on Higher Education (CHED) chairman Prospero de Vera III said Tuesday that entrance tests in higher education should focus more on equity so that poor students would be given higher chances of getting free education in state universities and colleges (SUCs).

De Vera said this in response to the proposal of Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno, as part of his bid to review the free college education system in SUCs, to “filter, through a nationwide test, those who should be entitled to free education.”

According to the CHED chairman, such nationwide test would be “disastrous” if it would be like the University of the Philippines College Admission Test (UPCAT), which he said could be more favorable to those who have the luxury of attending review classes.

“Those who pass the UPCAT are students coming from relatively richer families from urban areas who have the money to do review classes, who are more prepared to pass the admission test. Is that the admission test we want in this country?” De Vera said on ANC.

In Diokno’s proposal, he said that the “score of the examinee will determine which SUC and its campus he or she will be assigned.”

He added that those who passed the nationwide exam and are entitled to “free” education should be allowed to use their entitlement, which would be a four-year voucher, to enter or reject their assigned state university or choose an accredited private university.

"He may refuse to enroll in an SUC assigned to him and instead attend any government-accredited private university that will admit him. Of course, the voucher will be released on an annual basis and will be based on satisfactory performance of the government scholar," Diokno had said.

De Vera, for his part, stressed that it is the government's responsibility to bring to education those coming from poor families, those that are coming from public schools, the children of indigenous communities, and the children of rebel returnees.

"We have a responsibility as a country to take steps to make sure that we bring them to the mainstream. We bring them to get educated. We give them hope so that they will not fight the government, so that insurgency will be reduced," he said.

During a House hearing in August, De Vera stressed that continued implementation of the law providing free college education is the best anti-poverty measure that the government can implement.

However, Diokno, citing the rising dropout rate, said it is "an indicator of wastefulness."

Data presented by CHED during the hearing showed that 36.83% of college students who entered the School Year 2020–2021 had dropped out or temporarily left schooling. —KBK, GMA Integrated News