Tuition Fee-Free

Here's the Fourth Best Feature Article (Secondary Level) during the National Schools Press Conference 2017 held at Pagadian City. The topic given was "Free college education under the Duterte administration". This was the best I could write in an hour since we were not given any fact sheet and I had to rely on my little knowledge about the topic.

Worrying about not being able to go to college next year?

The Philippine government got your back as for the academic year 2017-2018, it will be implementing its free college education program for the first time. Just look up for your school in the web to see if it's included in the list of the hundreds of institutions benefiting from the breakthrough.

Recently, the information easily spread like fire as the Filipino youth kept sharing the said list and related reports in different social media platforms, all celebrating the good news. It's confirmed, the Philippine government is allocating P8 billion budget to the Commission on Higher Education to pay the college students' tuition fee in the state universities and colleges all over the country.

This was made possible after the efforts of youth groups and education advocates to pursue the realignment of the certain fund to what they consider as one of the greatest investments of the country, education. With the help of officials who share the same advocacy, they finally got a nod from the government to pay more attention and allot ample budget to the tertiary level.

(Photo from Manila Bulletin)

University of the Philippines and Polytechnic University of the Philippines are among the school benefactors which students will be spared by the government free from their tuition fee next year. However, miscellaneous, dormitory and other fees are not yet covered. Still, the college students are grateful, considering that the free tuition fee is already a big act of passing the hat.

Mark Joey Pua, a student of PUP, will be on his last year in college by the time of the program's implementation. He feels that it would be a great aid for him and his mother who works abroad to support his studies.

Mark is just one of the many youths who rejoiced the milestone which they believe would be lessening the burden from their families' shoulders. Also, students who stopped their studies before due to financial reasons are given the opportunity now to go back to school and continue taking up their dream courses.

The hard works continue not only coming from the advocates but all the Filipinos to push through the further improvement of the program. They unceasingly ask and convince the government to make the free college education continuous so it would not be only effective for the next school year, but for the years to come. This, they believe, is to cater also to the next generation of college students.

Worrying about entering college? Thanks to collective efforts, the Philippine government got your back, telling you to drop those worries, get back on your feet, wear your university uniform, and be a few steps nearer to your dream job!

Tet-Tet