Why is it that more than a third of our college-level students have stopped schooling?
This is a disturbing development that requires urgent action by the national government, particularly the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd).
The agency responsible for overseeing higher education in the country believes this may have been caused by several factors.
First, this may be due to the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 onwards, when the government imposed severe restrictions on movement to contain the spread of the disease.
The lockdowns forced colleges and universities to resort to online learning, which required ready access to computers—laptops, PCs, cellphones—that students coming from needy families could hardly afford.
Second, because many businesses closed down or reduced the number of workers, students could no longer pay tuition.
While the government already offered free college education in state colleges and universities, private schools relying mainly on tuition and other fees from students found it difficult to survive the economic crunch.
Third, the increasing cost of living also prevented college level students from continuing their studies.
While CHEd offers subsidies to students who actually pass a certain test, this prevents those who fail the tests—more than half of the test takers—from continuing their studies.
Fourth, it is possible, according to CHEd, there are many who are not test grantees who also need financial assistance and are not getting it.
It is true that the cost of living has really gone up.
How can we expect families already hard up even before COVID-19 to be able to support the schooling of their children?
These reasons were cited by CHEd during the recent Senate deliberations on the proposed 2024 budget of the agency.
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian lamented that universities and colleges had an attrition rate of 15.90 percent in the school year (SY) 2020 to 2021, but jumped to 37.79 in SY 2021 to 2022 then further to 40.98 percent in SY 2022 to 2023.
CHEd, however, clarified that the rate has begun to decrease, with a projected 35.15 attrition rate in SY 2023 to 2024.
That offers cold comfort for poor families now keeping their college-level students at home or out in the streets trying to earn their keep.
We need higher education institutions for our youth to develop analytical skills and to acquire new knowledge they can use in real life in whatever field they choose.
But if our youth are kept from acquiring higher education due to financial difficulties, then the State should step in and make it possible for them to continue their schooling and aspire for a better future.
