hot topic: Suicide and UP

I ought to apologize for my recent status message which was very insensitive to the recent tragedy of a UP student killing herself over unpaid tuition fees.  Each life is unique. It’s always downright unreasonable to comment on the plight of others when it is not your own. 

I have to maintain though UP cannot be blamed for this tragedy and it does not deserve the bashing it is receiving now. We don’t have to hold anybody responsible for this. The situation can be better. There could be room for improvement for UP but that’s not equal to discrimination, oppression or repression. We have to admit at this point that it cannot help all the students who need its assistance. This is not the best situation but let’s not kid ourselves.  It’s true. If this were a math problem to be solved, we can safely consider this as one of the givens.

There is nothing romantic about poverty. When it comes to money, there are three questions to be asked: How do you get it? How much do you have? And how do you spend it? Don’t even bother asking yourself how much you really need. The answer will only upset you and the number tends to grow.

One way for UP to get money is to raise its tuition fees. It should. Because unlike UP high school which screens applicants on the basis family income, UP (the university) only requires that you pass the entrance exam. So regardless of financial status, students are welcome to study in (forgive my bias) the best place to learn everything you need to know about how to make a difference in the world. It is worth what it charges.

But it has taken upon itself a greater task which is to socialize education and make it more accessible to those who otherwise cannot afford college education. This is a task as large as the problem of poverty itself not just for this one student but for the rest of the Philippines. UP is not the only university calling out for greater support. In fact, if it were up to me, I will not make UP the priority in budgeting. I might decide to allocate more funds to impoverished public elementary and high schools, state universities in far flung areas and other state universities which for the longest time have been sitting quietly in the shadow of UP. Realistically, budgeting involves trade-offs.  It’s a tough balancing act. When deciding to give to one or to the other, there is always a point when it becomes mutually exclusive.

(There is by the way no need to react strongly if you disagree with me on this. I’ll never be president.)

What I’m trying to say is to achieve its goals and to satisfy our great expectations, UP also has to work with several givens including lack of funds for different priorities: facilities, teacher training, teacher compensation, infrastructure and tuition fee subsidies.  We have to go easy on the institution a little bit.

The tragedy has brought to the floor the issue of tuition fee subsidy, which is a good thing. Is UP doing it right? I do agree that in light of this recent event, the university ought to revisit its methods in assessing how much subsidy one student deserves and how much flexibility it can afford (yes, the word is afford) in terms of payment schedules.

I think when it comes to the issues of making education more accessible, people aren’t exactly disagreeing that this merits utmost attention. But we have to be realistic in identifying what is within our means and how much we actually can do. There really is nothing romantic about poverty.