Arroyo orders socially sensitive tuition plan

MANILA, Philippines—President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has signed an executive order (EO) for the drafting of “flexible, socially sensitive” tuition fee payment plans in state colleges and universities.

In a speech before a national convention of the Sangguniang Kabataan (Youth Council) in Sta. Rosa town, Laguna province, Arroyo said the EO would also call for a reform of school policy preventing students who have not paid their tuition fees from taking periodic exams.

“I have issued an executive order for the Commission on Higher Education [to] instruct all state universities and colleges to devise a flexible, socially sensitive tuition fee payment plan and reform the no payment, no periodic examination policy that is currently being applied,” Arroyo said.

The President said she also instructed administrators of the Students’ Assistance Fund to expand its coverage from tuition fees to monthly stipends and subsidies for transportation, laboratory and research expenses, and book allowance.–Joel Guinto,
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