Thursday, June 3, 2010

Pagadian schools defer tuition fee hike

VARIOUS schools based in this city have decided to postpone their tuition fee increases for the first semester in consideration to the hard times parents go through these days.

This was learned by this paper after calling several private schools to inquire if they are riding on the clamor of other exclusive schools nationwide in asking the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to grant increases ranging from 3.92 to 15.74 percent.

Some of the schools asked by this paper and which readily provided information are Southern Mindanao Colleges (SMC), Saint Columban College, Philippine Technical Maritime School, STI-Pagadian, Eastern Mindanao College of Technology and Yllana Bay View College.

It was also learned from an official of Pagadian Capitol College that their school planned to increase tuition fees for their elementary, from P4700 to P5,027.50; and high school, from P4,600 to P5,531; but their college fees will remain as is.

A source from the Zamboanga del Sur Maritime Institute of Technology likewise told this paper in a telephone conversation that the school management has submitted to CHED its request for tuition fee hike of about six percent but they are still awaiting for CHED’s approval.

Despite the cited facility upgrades and the planned salary increases for their teachers this school year, the officials of the said schools said they decided to stay put with their tuition fees, like for example, SMC, which continued to offer P309.91 per unit for their engineering courses and P289.67 per unit for other related courses.

Medina College-Pagadian, meanwhile, retained their P250 per unit for their all their medical courses.

REPORT BY MICHAEL MEDINA & REMAI ALEJADO

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