Pampanga's coeds giving up school, seek jobs as GROs

SAN FERNANDO CITY - Enforcement of the expanded value-added tax is expected to trigger increases in tuition fees in most schools, colleges and universities next semester, forcing more students here to quit school.

Meliza (not her real name), 18, a second-year nursing student of the Holy Angel University said she has to bid goodbye to her school for a while. Her parents could no longer afford to pay her tuition fees. She lives in Mexico, Pampanga.

What is risky is that Melizza is considering accepting the offer of a friend to work as a guest relation officer in the province’s sin site of Balibago in Angeles City.

"My friend told me that GRO’s who work there [laser karaokes] could earn money easily. I might go for it, finish my studiers because I want to go abroad and become a successful nurse," she said.

Reports received by The Manila Times revealed that entertainers who work the bars, laser karaokes and videokes in Balibago could soar to more than 10,000 when college students and college dropouts join them during these hard times.

Meliza said most of her friends at the HAU and Angeles University this semester are planning to stop studying. "They want to look for a job."

However, the Department of Labor and Employment here revealed that unemployment rates continue to rise and opportunities for college graduates become less yearly.

Gov. Mark Lapid has vowed to increase beneficiaries for the educational fund assistance program for college students in the province next school year.

Pampanga has more than 170 student beneficiaries since the first semester of this year. The numbers could triple if the budget for next year will be approved, Lapid said.

Of the 170 beneficiaries, he is targeting at least 600 students in the province next school year. Students, however, should maintain a general average grade of 80 percent in the past semester before qualifying for the assistance on the next semester.

Francis Maslog, Lapid’s appoint secretary, said the program is also open to students who take two-year vocational and technical courses like electronics, auto-diesel mechanic and associate courses.

Students are disqualified from receiving assistance if they fail to reach the minimum 80-percent general average as their final grades.

Lapid told The Manila Times that if the province’s budget is increased, from P2 million to P6 million, more students would receive financial help to support their studies.

Maslog said the province started helping the poor but deserving college students this year. Each student receives P5,000 in cash every semester.

Students could use the money to supplement their tuition fee and daily food and transportation expenses.

The province recently won the province-wide Pampanga regional skills training competition represented by the student beneficiaries. Joey Aguilar