Courtesy of The Stringer - thestringer.com.au
http://thestringer.com.au/the-death-of-kristel-tejada/
Photo, EPA/Dennis M. Sabangan - Students throw a bench during a protest following the death of Kristel Tejada. Student organisations criticised the university’s policies on tuition fees and held demonstrations of mourning following the suicide after she failed to pay tuition fees. Students vowed to hold more protests till tuition fee changes are made, arguing that currently they hinder the right to education of students who have financial difficulties.
- A week of black armband protests at public and private universities and colleges across the Philippines took place between March 18 to 22. The death of Kristel Tejada on March 15 has touched many throughout the nation.
University fees had risen. Another hike is expected.
Ms Tejada could not pay her university tuition fees in time. She took her life.
On March 21, the Philippine Star newspaper reported, “Lawmakers on Thursday traced the death of University of the Philippines Manila freshman Kristel Tejada to the cut imposed by the Government in the budget of State Universities and Colleges (SUC).”
Ms Tejada took her life on March 15.
She consumed silver cleaning fluid after she had to file a leave of absence during the middle of her second semester because she had failed to pay tuition fees.
Many regions of the Philippines are impoverished and the economy in general is struggling despite a wealthy upper class. Lawlessness in many regions on many of the Philippine islands is directly linked to abject poverty.
But Philippino Luzviminda Illagan said that the Government has got its priorities wrong if it is to rise people out of otherwise crippling poverty.
“Education as a right demands that schools exercise flexibility and maximum consideration. I blame the Government’s lopsided priorities and the school’s mechanical and insensitive implementation of a policy.”
On March 21 Babe Romualdez reported in Philstar.com, “A low-key businessman who did not wish to be identified (said) he felt extremely dismayed when he learned about the 16 year old student who took her life after failing to settle a previous loan of P6,377 on time.”
“(The) businessman had been giving financial support and scholarships to poor but deserving college students for over a decade now – which is why the suicide of Kristel Tejada for as something as paltry as P6,000 struck him as very sad and distressing. ‘If only I knew about her situation, I could have easily paid for the P6,377 and would have taken care of the tuition for the rest of her college years,’ he confided to us, saying he is urging other wealthy businessmen to be more proactive by putting up a foundation that would help bright kids belonging to the poorest of the poor attain basic and college education.”
“What happened to Kristel is very unfortunate but many are hopeful that her death will not be in vain because of the attention being given to the existing tuition policies at the University of the Philippines where students are made to pay according to the family’s income bracket. Many are also urging for more humanitarian implementation of existing tuition assistance programs especially because (the) majority of students in State universities and colleges belong to the lowest social brackets,” wrote Mr Romualdez.
“Certainly, wealthy businessmen can take up the slack knowing they can make a difference even in just one life of a student they help put through school – keeping in mind that if you save even just one life, it is as if you have already saved the world.”
On March 21, the body of Ms Tejada was taken to the College of Arts and Sciences building at the University of the Philippines where a noon Mass was held.
The next day the funeral march took place from the building to Mehan Garden. The Tejada family had asked that everyone wear red, their daughter’s favourite colour.
Ms Tejada’s program supervisor, Andrew Martinez said that Ms Tejada had told her that studying had been a means for her “to cope with life’s worries” and that it was her beacon of light – hope.
Ms Tejada was a 16-year-old in her first year of Behavioural Sciences. It is understood she took her life when she deferred her studies because she did not have the money to pay for them.
Her father, Christopher described the Philippines tuition fee system as “oppressive” but he also advised that for those who are poor that one’s own life should be put above expectations which may not be attainable.
On March 21, Nino Jesus Orbeta wrote that Mr and Mrs Tejada “would not prevent their other children from studying at university.”
They would leave the decision to their children.
Whether they can afford the education is another matter.
Ms Tejada had devoted her childhood to learning and excelled at school – she was always to be found reading said her parents.
Mr Tejada said that his second child, a 12-year-old girl, is in Grade 7 and, like his eldest daughter had been, is a scholar at Manila Cathedral School.
Mr Tejada said that he hoped that by the time his daughter and two sons reach the opportunity for university that the University of the Philippines will have in place the changes needed for a proposed Socialized Tuition Fee Assistance Program.
He asked that his eldest is not judged.
“If you didn’t know her, don’t be too quick to judge her. We also condemn what she did but we lost a daughter,” he said.
On the day he said he would be inconsolable once his daughter was buried.
At the same time, he called for reforms with the University of the Philippines enrolment system and with oppressive tuition fees so as “to avoid another Kristel.”
During the Mass, Father Reverend Jorgen Orbe described Kristel as a young girl who felt “lost in the last moments of her life.”
“She was lost but in the mercy of God, we can hope that God has found her,” he said.
He added that people should learn from her tragic death, by “reaching out” to those who, like her, were “feeling lost.”
“In that way we can honor Kristel,” he said.
Read more: http://thestringer.com.au/the-death-of-kristel-tejada/
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Providing quality education is an obligation of the state
Honor Her. Finish Your Studies. Honor Her More. Fight for a Better Future!
Akbayan Youth on the Death of a UP Manila Student
We in Akbayan Youth express our deepest condolences to the UP Manila community and especially to the friends and family of the UPM student who, according to initial reports, committed suicide due to financial constraints that forced her to file leave of absence.
The loss of life of one student is a loss of many. It is a loss of one student's dream for a bright future. It is a big loss for that aspiration that through education and hard work one can uplift one's life and his/her family's life out of misery and poverty. It is a big loss for a society trying to build itself as caring and supportive of its members.
This very sad incident highlights the necessity to reexamine our collective goals towards education. It redirects our attention to the current state of our education system and to the plight of the youth and students in our country.
We in Akbayan Youth maintain that education is a basic right. Providing accessible and quality education is an obligation of the state to ensure that its people achieve their full potentials and contribute meaningfully to the society. Ultimately, as stipulated in the International Bill of Rights, primary and secondary education should be free and accessible and the state should make progressive actions for free higher education.
A basic step is for the government to follow the international benchmark on education spending for developing countries at a minimum 6% of the Gross National Product (GNP), as prescribed by the 1996 International Commission on Education, popularly known as the Delors Commission. While we laud the efforts of the current administration to dramatically increase the education budget from 2011 to 2013 (PhP 207.3 B, 238.8 B, and 292.7 for DepEd respectively), we lament that it still remains way below 3 % of the GDP, an event smaller figure compared to the GNP. Education budget, in fact, declined from 2.3 % in 2011 to 2.1 % of the GDP in 2012.
The quality of education and school enrollment rate continues to deteriorate with less and less spending on education. Data from both the DepEd and DBM show strong correlation between enrollment rate and government spending on education. Furthermore, only 7 out of 10 students graduate in elementary while 5 out of this 10 graduate from high school, according to DepEd BEIS (Basic Education Information System) in 2008-2009.
Access to and quality of higher education is even worse. The five students that graduated from high school do not necessarily get to enter college. Education has basically been commoditized – only those with money can have access. The barely minimum support for State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) to provide relatively affordable education to the poor and marginalized has resulted to tuition fee increases in SUCs and the lessening of state subsidy. Such is the case of the University of the Philippines and other SUCs. Such is the situation that has pushed one student to the extreme.
We challenge our government to take concrete measures in bringing back the youth to schools. We call for a minimum and mandatory 6% of GNP allocated for education.
While we call for greater state subsidy for education, we also call on the premier national university to intensively review its implementation of the Socialized Tuition and Financial Assistance Program (STFAP) towards the end increasing coverage to poor students. We deplore the University's policy to force indigent students to file leave of absence for their inability to pay school fees.
Similar repressive policies are likewise implemented in other schools, public or private. We call on CHED to put more teeth on the implementation its memorandum imposing sanctions to schools on their "no tuition, no exam policy" which is a common practice among private universities and colleges.
We enjoin colleges and universities to establish or strengthen their guidance offices and peer support and counseling mechanisms to provide life saving interventions to students being taken down by stress and pressure for academic and social loads.
To our fellow students, we encourage you to honor the death of the UPM student by being even more diligent in attending classes and striving even harder to take full opportunity of being in school. Let us remember her as we remember our fellow youth, 50% of whom, are not even able to enter higher education. Honor her by finishing your studies. Honor her more by fighting for a better future. Let us reaffirm our commitment to fight for a more democratic, accessible and quality education for all.
https://akbayan.org.ph
Bello to UP: Review STFAP, scrap private sector managerial methods in state educational system
Akbayan Party-list Representative Walden Bello today called on the administration of the University of the Philippines to review its tuition fee system amid the suicide of a first year UP Manila student reportedly because she was forced to apply for a leave of absence due to unpaid tuition.
According to Bello, the university's Socialized Tuition and Financial Assistance Program (STFAP) needed reforms to become more responsive to the needs of the students.
"This tragic incident is a dousing of cold water not only on the UP community but on the entire country on the current situation of our public education system. We join the UP community in mourning her death. We hope this will spur a comprehensive review with the end view of reforming the school's tuition fee system to make it more responsive to the needs of the students," Bello said.
"I'm sure the UP Manila administration would never have wanted this tragedy to fall on any student. I'm sure that they would have exhausted all measures afforded to them to ensure that their students enjoy their right to quality education. Sadly, the current flaws in the system impair their intentions to do so," Bello added.
Private sector managerial methods detrimental to SUCs
Bello, who previously served on the faculty of the UP National College of Public Administration and Governance and the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy in Diliman, cautioned other state universities and colleges (SUCs) from adopting private sector managerial methods.
The UP Manila case is one more distressing consequence of the imposition on our state educational system of the managerial methods of the private sector. "The business of schools and universities, especially state educational institutions, is not business, it's educating our youth. Private business style management should be left with private business," Bello insisted.
"The crucial aim of state universities and colleges is to ensure that quality education is accessible to everyone. Once we blindly adopt managerial policies tailor made for private business, we risk not only eroding our educational system but also failing the students," Bello added.
Student psychological services
Akbayan also called on the UP administration to extend a wide array of psychological and other support services to students such as counseling services, stress management, and other therapeutic interactions and counseling. Akbayan said these services are important in addressing a student's problems which could be psychological in nature and which could differ in terms of their roots, triggers, and potential resolutions.
According to the party-list group, UP should assess if its current support services are adequate to service the tens of thousands of students enrolled with the state university.
"College is a stress-filled experience for students and support services for their mental and psychological should be available at all times. UP as well as other state colleges and universities must have accessible and effective professional services for students who are facing psychological and emotional problems. We want them to be able to know that there are people they can trust and confide to," Bello said.