On Education Budget Cuts: Let's Do Something.

If you are a student of the University of the Philippines, especially if your student number begins with an "07-", you most probably have heard about the Tuition and Other Fees Increase, or ToFI, back in 2007. It was UP’s decision to increase its fees by 300 per cent. The increase, the university say, is inevitable because the government no longer provides enough subsidy for the university to maintain the quality of education it provides.

Four years later, the government decides to perform an education budget cut for state universities and colleges. And a few months after that decision, Philippine universities drop out of the top 300 world universities ranking.

Quality and accessible education are the very reasons for the existence of state universities. Both elements though, seem to be disappearing as we look upon the recent status of higher education in the country. The government indeed is bombarded with enough problems and issues, much like the regular youth scrambling towards life for learning and purpose. The Philippine education system crisis is undeniably saddening at the very least, often infuriating, and sometimes downright depressing. But perhaps there is something that you and I could do.

Perhaps we could donate books, to overcome intellectual hunger. Perhaps we could participate in building schools, to strengthen the foundations of learning. Or perhaps we could spread awareness, to kill the apathy surrounding most of the best-educated in our country.

Let’s do something.