Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero on Sunday, September 24 urged his colleagues to expedite the passage of Senate Bill No. 2441 which mandates private higher education institutions (HEIs) to waive entrance examination fees and charges of qualified students applying for college admission.

SB No. 2441 or the proposed Free College Entrance Act, Escudero said, would enable thousands of poor yet deserving young Filipinos the opportunity to get a college degree and have a chance to a better future.

Under Section 5 of the proposed bill, HEIs are required to waive their college entrance examination fees to graduating high school students who are a natural-born Filipino citizen; belong to the top 10% of his or her graduating class; and belong to a family whose combined household income falls below the poverty threshold as defined by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).

Under the bill, students belonging to a family whose income cannot afford “in a sustained manner to provide for their minimum basic needs of food, health, education, housing and other essential amenities of life duly certified as such by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)” will also be qualified to a free entrance exam.

“Thus, only the truly impoverished will be granted the privilege. Some entrance exam fees are equivalent to minimum day’s wage that taking the former will mean meals foregone,” Escudero said.

“No family should starve for a day because food money has been traded for examination fee,” the chairman of the Senate Committee on Higher, Technical and Vocational Education also said.

“For the poor, this is not a free ride for the whole college experience. It does not swing the school portals open. It merely allows them a foot on the door,” he added.

With the listed qualification, Escudero said the proposed law does not disenfranchise private colleges from collecting fees.

“In short this is not a blanket waiver of fees. It only exempts a small subset of fee-exempt entrance takers, as enumerated in Section 5,” he explained.

Since it would only apply to a small segment exam takers, he said income forgone can be recouped by payments made by other takers.

“And when qualified takers do proceed to enroll in the school, then the school’s small investment will yield a higher return through tuition paid. It can be seen as a marketing device that can lure potential enrollees,” he added.

The bill also gives the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) the authority to determine and impose sanctions against HEIs who will not comply with the proposed law.

Other senators who are co-author of the bill also include Senators Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., Mark Villar, Manuel Lapid, Lawrence Go, Raffy Tulfo and Sherwin Gatchalian.