There are 80 private schools in Western Visayas who had applied for tuition fee increase for the school year 2012-2013, said Department of Education 6 (Dep Ed-6) Director Dr. Mildred Garay.

Garay said most of the schools have asked for a five-percent increase in order to finance improvements in their facilities and teachers' salaries, among others.

She said the requested increase is minimal and still within the approved increase of 10 percent.

The director also said these schools are among thousands of private educational institutions existing regionwide whose applications for tuition fee increase are under review.

"We are still validating if their applications are within the rules and regulations of our office," she said.

With this increase, Garay stressed that they are expecting several students to transfer to public schools by the opening of classes.

She said public schools are welcoming these students and she assured them that proper accommodation will be given to them.

"We make sure that all books have been distributed already and enough chairs and tables will be provided", she said.

Garay added there are more than 200 newly-hired teachers all over the region who were trained for the implementation of the 12 to K program.

She also said that these new teachers were assigned to 18 divisions including the new school division of Escalante City in Negros Occidental.

"I'm sure their number could help a lot in our new curriculum especially that our universal kindergarten program has already started this summer," she ended.

REACTIONS

Meanwhile, Samantha Louise Tanate, a third year high school student of Mary Immaculate Academy lamented the plan for a tuition fee increase. "Being in a private university does not mean we have money. There are those who were just lucky to be given the opportunity. I am lucky that my parents have the capacity to send me to school. But this does not mean that we don't care about the expenses. I also have other siblings who need to go to school. The continued increase of tuition is a big burden for my parents. My father is getting older, but he still needs to work away from us just to help us finish our studies before he settles down," she said.

Sophie Cervera, a student of Ateneo de Iloilo said tuition fee increases are frustrating on the part of parents "because they could not afford to send their children to school while others may not be given a chance to enrol."

On the other hand, Jed Solinap, a student understands that private schools' operations boil down to business as they are not government agencies. "For me, it's fair because with the Philippine economy right now, we should really expect prices to increase, including those in education."* with reports from Louine Hope Conserva and Karen Bermejo