ANGELES CITY – A city official here has denounced the questionable on-the-job training (OJT) fees ranging from P5,000 to P15,000 being imposed by some schools here on graduating college students.
In a privilege speech during a session of the city council, Councilor Jay Sangil cited reports that students taking up various courses in some colleges and universities here are being required to pay such OJT fees as requirement for graduation this school year.
Sangil noted, however, that government and private sector offices who take in students for OJT’s do not charge any fee.
“Many parents, including the wealthy ones, would complain of the costly tuition each time they would enroll their children,” Sangil said, as he noted that “more recently almost all schools have created additional, unnecessary charges.”
He said that in one university, students taking up a bachelor’s course had to pay P7,000 purported OJT fee, while students taking up another course were charged P15,000.
“I really can’t understand why universities and colleges have to impose additional burden on students, especially those self-supporting or working students,” Sangil said.
“Those strongly driven to just graduate and eventually find work to help their families make ways, no matter how difficult, to comply with such questionable requirement,” he added.
Sangil challenged the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to look into his report. He said one university official he had asked about the OJT fees failed to justify the imposition.
“For many years now, our national government has failed miserably in controlling or regulating the continuous rise of the cost of education in our country, especially in the tertiary level.
This should not be aggravated by questionable fees school officials take liberty to impose on students and their parents,” Sangil said.
