Assistant Bacolod School's Division Superintendent Luisito Escalona yesterday appealed to parents to enroll their children and stressed that they are not required to pay the miscellaneous fees upon enrollment.

He said the Boys Scout and Girl Scout fund drive and registration fees as well as, other voluntary and compulsory contributions will only be collected from August to October. Voluntary contributions that include the Red Cross, Anti-TB and the school ID are not supposed to be paid by the parents because the local government is the one financing these dues. Mayor Evelio Leonardia said the reason they are trying to implement free education is that they want to encourage as many children as possible to be in school.

"We believe there are cases where parents use the excuse that they could not enroll their children the claim that they have no money. We want more children to be in school because we believe education is the greatest equalizer. We are providing this opportunity and this vehicle so they will have a better future," he said.

Escalona yesterday said the Bacolod City government had paid P6,160,700 in miscellaneous fees for 88,011 students last year.

This covered 58,398 elementary pupils and 29,613 high school students, he said.

Escalona said he is projecting that the number of students will increase to about 90,650 in 2007, based on an increase in enrollment of 3 percent every ten years. The actual figures will be known by August, the cut-off date of the official enrollment of the schools, he said.

Escalona said another school will open in the Abada-Escay site in June so the city will have 45 elementary schools and 22 high schools this year.

He said he met with the 47 school heads Tuesday to call their attention to reports that there are schools violating the standing policies of the DepEd on the collection of school fees that include the PTA dues, as approved by the respective PTA or PTCA organizations of the schools.

Escalona said the DepEd order requires that the voluntary contributions to be paid by the parents or guardians are supposed to be collected in the later months after the enrollment period. Enrollment started on the last week of April and will end June 3, he said.

Leonardia said the city did not pay for the publication fees because some schools have publications and others have none. So it is an internal matter between the PTA and school officials, he said.

The city pays for mandatory fees to the tune of about P6 million annually and that is what we intend to do again in the next three years, and that is still part of our campaign promise, he said.

Leonardia also said that if there is an increase in miscellaneous fees, he is assuring parents that the city will pay for it.*CGS

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