Only 30 percent of the 13,028 Filipino high school seniors who took and passed the UP College Admission Test (UPCAT) in 2013 were students from public high schools, the Philippine Collegian reported in its latest issue.
Citing data from the UP Office of Admissions and a report of the “Study Group on Admissions” convened by UP president Alfredo Pascual, the Philippine Collegian reported the UPCAT “can be seen as discriminating actively against students from poorer backgrounds.”
The Collegian said “the representation of public high school students in UP Diliman is even lower at barely 12 percent, or 467 out of 3,913 UPCAT passers.
“From 2009 to 2013, 50 percent of UPCAT passers came from private schools, 20 percent from public science high schools, and only about 30 percent from public general and barangay schools,” Hans Christian Marin and Keith Richard Mariano of the Philippine Collegian wrote.
Science high schools are also run using public funds, but they have selective admission and retention policies and use curricula different from those of the Department of Education public schools.
The UP study group said examinees from the private schools “have a distinct advantage over those from public schools…”
Marin and Mariano reported that the study group proposed the revision of the UPCAT formula to give more weight to the performance of an applicant during high school.
The study group wants the weight of high school grades raised to 60 percent from 40 percent of the UPCAT score.
“[This] will give them higher chances to be included in the UPCAT cut-off score in the chosen colleges of the constituent universities,” the Philippine Collegian quoted the study group as saying.
The study group, composed of seven UP faculty members, said a four-hour exam should not determine the rest of a student’s chances to enter UP, the Collegian also reported.
The Collegian said the office of the UP president is already deliberating on the study group’s findings and recommendations. — JDS, GMA News
