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By Rommel C. Lontayao, Reporter
Noting that many “poor” students do not pass
its entrance examinations in recent years, the administration of the
Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) has devised a way so as not
to defeat the university’s purpose of serving the less-privileged
but deserving students of Manila.
The university is carrying out its “PLM Big
Brother” project, which aims to provide review classes to
graduating high-school students who come from the poor families in
Manila, PLM President Adel Tamano told The Manila Times in an
exclusive roundtable interview Tuesday.
He said the review classes will enable the poor
students to be on equal footing with students coming from
middle-income families, who normally perform better in the PLM
Admission Test. More students from middle-income families are
enrolling at schools like PLM, because the bad economy is forcing
them to look at such schools where tuition is free or more
affordable.
“We have observed that for some reason, such
as lack of nutrition, students coming from poor families are being
outperformed in the admission tests,” added Tamano, who said that
if the trend continues, the university’s vision-mission of serving
the “less-privileged” will not be met.
For this reason, he said, conducting
admission-test review classes for poor students will give them a
better chance to perform well in the examinations.
PLM, as a public institution receiving most of
its funding from the City of Manila, was established to give
opportunities to poor residents to avail themselves of a college
education, tuition-free.
Tamano added that PLM has invested substantially
in upgrading its facilities, workforce and faculty to ensure that
students get quality education at par with any learning institution
in the world.
The 37-year-old lawyer, more popularly known for
being the United Opposition spokesman, said he has allotted a budget
to upgrade facilities, renovating the comfort rooms and gymnasium,
adding classrooms, installing free Internet for online research and
free laser printing for students and faculty and the university café,
which have all brought pride and dedication of the students to their
school.
Also upgraded were the wage and non-wage
benefits of employees through providing two shuttle service buses
and refurbishing the Mabuhay Integrated Learning Center as an
extension service to cater to their children and medical benefits.
He also ordered zero tolerance for corruption, encouraging students
to report malpractices of PLM employees and teaching staff to him
immediately.
Tamano said PLM also provides affordable
graduate and post-graduate education to government employees right
at their offices. He said high-profile legal personalities have
joined the College of Law teaching staff, like former Senator
Ernesto Maceda in the legislation and public governance, lawyer
Katrina Legarda for family law and former Health Secretary Dr.
Alberto Romualdez for the graduate school of health and sciences.
“I want PLM to be such a good place to study
in that when the students go out, they will either start to complain
about the bad conditions outside, or they will start to do something
to make the necessary changes,” Tamano said.
He emphasized the role that local universities
and colleges play in shaping socially responsible citizens.
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