SIX Partylist Representatives filed a resolution urging the Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education to impose moratorium on tuition and other fee hikes on all educational institutions.

House Resolution 1722 was filed by Kabataan Party-list Rep. Sarah Jane Elago, ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro, Gabriela Party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas and Bayan Muna Party-list Representatives Carlos Isagani Zarate, Ferdinand Gaite and Eufemia Cullamat.

The lawmakers stressed in their resolution that the Covid19 pandemic has caused grave economic hardship on many Filipino families as small businesses have closed.

“The economic crisis has been affecting the capacity of students to enroll and continue with their studies, with thousands of students temporarily opting out of school to reduce the financial burden and to help their families in looking for additional income sources,” the Makabayan bloc said.

The collection of exorbitant and dubious school fee, they added, aggravates the plight of families who are already struggling with the impacts of the pandemic.

While the implementation of distance learning has left school facilities unused, the lawmakers said that some educational institutions continue to charge other school fees such as Related Learning Experience fee, on-the-job training fee, cultural fee, gym fee, energy fee, dental fee and laboratory fees.

“In the midst of the pandemic and socio-economic crisis, the Department of Education as of June 2020 approved 654 out of 901 tuition hike applications for Academic Year 2020-2021,” the resolution reads.

Based on the information received by the lawmakers, among the private higher educational institutions that are planning to hike fees for the next academic year are the Holy Angel University, Saint Louis University and De La Salle University.

“Stopping the increases on tuition and other school fee is long overdue because of the skyrocketing cost of education due to decades-long policies of deregulation and commercialization,” the group stressed.