MANILA-At least 2.3 million indigent Filipino high school graduates will be able to pursue tertiary education with Senator Loren Legarda’s proposed Pantawid Tuition Program.
Legarda said that Senate Bill No. 6, or the proposed Government Scholarship to Students for University and Technical Vocational Education Act, will be a complementing policy of the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).
“This will establish a college scholarship program for high school graduates from household beneficiaries of 4Ps who have satisfactorily completed the requirements and conditions set by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD),” she said.
“A tuition fee supplement worth at least P5,000 will be provided to the student beneficiaries to be released every start of the semester. The amount may be increased upon approval of the Commission on Higher Education,” Legarda added.
As of 2012, there are now an estimated 2.3 million households currently benefitting from the 4Ps, which is seen as the biggest and most comprehensive poverty reduction tool by the government as it seeks to improve human capital investments by linking up the receipt of cash grant on the basis of meeting certain conditions and requirements set by the DSWD.
“It is important that the early gains of the 4Ps will be preserved and complemented thru the provision of a college scholarship program for high school graduates from the same household beneficiaries,” she said.
“This will enable families to have a better chance of improving their financial standing by ensuring that at least one family member will graduate from college or from a technical-vocational institution to improve his or her job prospects upon entering the labor market,” Legarda concluded.
