It was 2018, my last year in senior high school, and the time I applied for universities. I vividly remember that the University of the Philippines College Admission Test (UPCAT) made headlines due to the long lines for application as the test became finally free.
Coming from the low-middle-income class, I already felt an existential crisis. I heard that UPCAT is hard. I heard that only a few slots were allotted to courses. Moreover, the floodgates of examinees have drowned my probability of entering that state-owned university that offers quality education and the program I wanted then.
Throughout my pre-college education, I’ve studied in public schools around Metro Manila. I’m deprived of strong educational foundations due, but not limited, to insufficient learning materials, backlogs over backlogs of lessons, and high student-to-teacher ratios. This, in turn, has caused me, at a later stage, to play catch-up on studying to learn the foundation and to learn the higher-level subject areas.
When the UPCAT season finally started, I could only wish that my education prepared me for this and I’ve known this option way before. I needed to cram years of schooling into months of self-review to revive the lessons and fill in the deficit we hadn’t touched enough in school.
A typical fate of an average and unprivileged low-middle-income class happened: I failed UPCAT.
I consider that as a dark phase in my life—that feeling of inequality. I felt that if I had the privilege of a quality education and instilled the symmetry of information toward college applications, I could have been at par or even outdid my peers. I believe that everyone has a different set of challenges when it comes to learning, and we can overcome them through quality education.
Continuing to college was not a matter of option but a necessity. I pursued college for the promise of employability because having a degree increases the chance of landing a job.
Luckily for me, I was accepted to the Polytechnic University of the Philippines—a state university that is covered by Republic Act No. 10931 or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act. I remember clearly seeing the amount of tuition fees under my tentative schedule and being covered by this law was one less worry over a pile of problems.
Throughout semesters, I took for granted my confirmation slips that broke down the amount of my tuition—until the 2023 budget deliberations.
The finance secretary said RA 10931 was anti-poor, hence a waste of government resources. Further, he proposed a national examination to qualify for a government subsidy.
I was enraged and offended.
That free tuition fee law allowed me to reallocate my precious resources to other expenses for books and gadgets. It made me think less of the burdensome rising costs in Metro Manila. More importantly, the law saved me during the pandemic as I was still able to continue my studies in spite of my parents being unable to work and my brother becoming the lone provider in the family. The law also helped me finish my program.
More than being offended, I felt gaslighted.
I don’t get the point of highlighting that the law produces inequality only to provide a recommendation that will only increase inequality. I can only imagine other aspiring college students similarly situated.
Here’s what I want to highlight: I am neither rich nor a prodigy, only driven to finish college. I’m neither an isolated case nor a worst-case scenario.
It seems that we need to beg for funding when it’s clear that the Constitution has promised Filipinos a quality and accessible education at all levels. What’s more infuriating with the remarks and actions is the impression that we are aiming to make Filipinos settle for being high school graduates.
I do get that government resources are scarce, but what I do not understand is why they need to spend less when it comes to education when in fact these investments could yield upward mobility in society and be beneficial in the long run.
I expect that by this time, we will be fighting for the issue of increasing the quality of education in public universities and a nondiscriminatory universal tertiary education where disadvantaged people can go to college. But no, we are moving backward.
The reality that I have and probably shared by many tells us that we are fighting for the privilege of education when in fact it’s a right of every Filipino. A government’s role is to fulfill the rights of its people. If the government doesn’t commit to it, what’s the difference between having a government that fails its people and not having a government at all?
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Al Lumasag, 22, is a recent graduate of economics from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.