One of the biggest donors to the education sector, who requested anonymity, once said, “A Grade 3 student from Ateneo speaks and writes better English than a fourth-year high school student from Surigao City. That’s how big the gap is. Poor students (70 percent) get poor quality education, while the middle class (25 percent) and the rich (5 percent) get the best. We need to move mountains and bridge this social gap.”

Private schools, branded as “educators of the elite,” charge tuitions poor students cannot afford. But elitism in education is not the culprit, and is per se not an evil. The schools have a key role in producing the future leaders of the nation.

What is evil is our failure to give those who cannot afford it a good education. They have an inherent right to a good education. Thus, education is a tool of oppression, not emancipation, when it is denied to many and only a few get a quality education. The opportunities are lopsided.

Universities have their scholarship programs for the poor but they spend millions for just a dozen well-off scholars. We cannot blame them for this “systemic” problem embedded in education financing.

The OFWs have somehow bridged the gap. They can send their children to good, expensive schools. Farmers sell their three carabaos for tuition money. So construction workers and farmers here are eventually supported by their children who become managers and professionals.

The root cause is perhaps uncontrolled tuition increases, even among private schools, in spite of government control. You cannot blame them. They need more classrooms, facilities, and equipment, whose cost keep increasing as the student population explodes. But this goal of better facilities is abused. Air-conditioned classrooms became a big issue when parents complained of higher tuition.

Even UP Diliman, which used to offer cheap good quality education, which could compete with Ateneo and La Salle, suddenly increased its tuition dramatically a few years ago. The government subsidy was no longer enough. A middle-class student paying P12,000 per semester was suddenly paying P18,000, which was still not bad, as Ateneo and La Salle were in the vicinity of P50,000 per semester at the time. These figures have more than doubled today.

An Iranian diplomat said there were about 6,000 Iranian students in Philippine universities a few years ago, which dwindled to about 500 due to the spiraling tuition rates. He said the Philippines now has one of the highest tuition rates in the whole of Asia. The Philippines used to offer good cheap education that attracted foreigners, but not anymore. The Jews of New York used to send their kids to our premier medical schools, like UST, UE, and UP which could compete with US medical schools in terms of quality.

For the public schools, the situation is even more grim. There is a perennial lack of classrooms and facilities are inadequate. Yet the DepEd-CHEd has the largest budget among all the departments with the AFP in second place.

When La Salle Taft had a financial crisis years ago, it turned to the wealthy alumni for help, who infused millions. But they took over. The Brothers who had the education mission became less influential than the entrepreneurs who had the business sense to keep the school afloat. The financial aspect became the priority for survival. In order to be relevant to society, there must be a balance between the mission and business aspects of education. The story of La Salle is true for many universities nationwide today, looking for “rescuers” and relinquishing quality to stay afloat.

Due to the financial requirements of education, the taipans and the tycoons with money to spare went into education, buying up failing schools or putting up new ones. This is good but only if business allows educators with a sense of mission a freer hand.

In a global survey in 2021, UP ranked 68th, Ateneo de Manila 135th, La Salle Taft 166th, UST 186th and University of San Carlos 451st (Source CHEd). But this does not mean UP is “better” than Ateneo. The parameters used for ranking can be questionable. For example, the University of Singapore, which was at the top in Asia at one time, commissioned the Ateneo, with a much lower rank, to improve its English curricula. Education is a complex endeavor and must balance finance and course content.