MANILA – A lawmaker urged President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to review the competence of Commission on Higher Education (CHED) officials who he claimed “act like Gods” following their directive to halt the senior high school program in state universities and colleges (SUCs).
“Instead of being part of the solution, CHED created another problem. It is as if our educational system is not beset with enough problems. The callous pronouncement only shows the priorities and incompetence of the sitting set of Commissioners, whose qualifications and outputs should now be reviewed by a body created by the President,” Surigao del Norte Rep. Ace Barbers said in a statement on Sunday.
In a statement on Jan. 3, the CHED said state universities and colleges would no longer accept senior high school students as the government’s voucher program only covered the K-12 transition period from school years 2016-2017 and 2020-2021.
CHED Chairman Prospero de Vera III earlier said they were willing to help implement the transition. However, he emphasized that this should be led by the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Board of Regents because the mandate falls under the basic and secondary education which is not covered by the CHED.
Students may transfer to basic education schools as SUCs stop senior high program DepEd
Barbers said the performance of each commissioner should be reviewed to ensure the rightful appointment of persons who can “check our slide in education standards and improve our global standing.”
“It is not enough that we appoint Masteral or Doctorate degree holders as CHED Commissioners. We should make sure that they possess outstanding managerial experience, are expert and experienced educators, tested by time, and with proven track record and character,” Barbers said.
“Some Commissioners act like Gods and lord it over the institutions of higher learning. These are questions of character which do not have a place in our educational system,” he claimed.
Meanwhile, House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro, together with other lawmakers from the Makabayan bloc, filed House Resolution 1533 on Sunday seeking to probe CHED and the DepEd’s assistance program, including the Senior High School Voucher Program (SHS-VP), to ensure the “right to access to quality education.”
“This issue highlights the failure of the government during the transition period that it even failed to simply call for a thorough consultation with all the stakeholders but now is unilaterally removing the subsidies for these students,” Castro said.
She added that an investigation into the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (GASTPE) is necessary to determine if the education agencies have implemented and aligned its mandate of “providing quality education for all.”
