The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) should urgently and properly use the allocation in the 2018 budget worth P10 million each for the modernization of State Universities and Colleges (SUCs). This is to ensure the success of R.A. 10931 or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act,” Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo said.
The Free Tuition Law was the brainchild of President Rodrigo Duterte to make tertiary education within the reach of majority of Filipinos, and which Congress immediately passed.
Castelo, one of the chief proponents of this Free Tuition Law at the House of Representatives, said the added allocation to SUCs should be utilized for the purchase of equipment to computerize SUCs.
The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) should also complement the modernization of the SUCs by ensuring the installation of free wifi in all of these public education institutions drawing from the P327 million new budget for the purpose, he added.
Castelo said efforts to modernize free public education will have the biggest impact on the country’s aspirations to become First World since it is in SUCs where most young Filipinos particularly those in the poor majority relies on for a better future.
“We aspire to become world-class. We cannot be world-class without any equipment. We cannot be world-class without wifi that is not just free but also fast. To be world-class is to be at par with the best in the world,” he said.
We aspire to become world-class. To be world-class is to be at par with the best in the world.
Castelo concluded that the Duterte administration had taken the way forward to prioritize education in improving the lot of Filipinos and the judicious use of government resources will assure a sustainable path for the nation’s progress.