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BY PRINCE GOLEZ, Manila Reporter
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MANILA – Every year the government is expected to spend over P250 billion to provide all Filipino students enrolled in state universities and colleges free education.
To date, 1.9 million are enrolled in public higher education institutions. More than 2.2 million students on one hand are enrolled in private schools.
Because the price tag is “too hefty” for the government to shoulder, Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara urged the Commission on Higher Education to prioritize students from poor and disadvantaged families.
“Despite the great efforts of the government to widen the access to education, the reality is that majority of our poor families are unable to send their kids to school. Our challenge now is to ensure that every Filipino family will be given the opportunity to have at least one college graduate who will help them rise from poverty,” Angara said.
Angara’s proposed Senate Bill No. 133 seeks to provide free college education to poor but deserving students under the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, or 4Ps.
The bill institutionalizes the Expanded Student Grants-in-Aid Program for Poverty Alleviation of CHED, which grants student-beneficiaries up to P60,000 per academic year covering tuitions costs and other school expenses.
Only up to 40,000 students of the total 4.4 million 4Ps household-beneficiaries can avail of the Program.
“Aside from tuition, poor families are also burdened by the costs of dorm, fare, food, books and other basic school supplies. It’s great that this grant includes stipends to further assist the parents with the expenses,” the lawmaker from Aurora said.
Sen. Loren Legarda asked CHED to give priority to students taking up science, technology, engineering, agri-fisheries, and mathematics courses in the grant of scholarships.
The Commission has proposed a budget of P13.4 billion for 2017. Around P6 billion budget will be allotted for its scholarship programs, seen to increase the number of scholarship beneficiaries from this year’s 271,209 slots to 437,522 slots./PN
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