COTABATO CITY – More than 60,000 students in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) will be given the chance to pursue college education, or vocational courses, with the aid of an expanded government scholarship program.
President Rodrigo Duterte spearheaded the launching of the new set of scholarship programs during his first official visit to the seat of the ARMM in the city on Saturday, October 29.
The scholarships are intended for students from indigent families and form part of the array of anti-poverty programs under President Duterte’s Comprehensive Reform and Development Agenda for the ARMM (CRDA).
The CRDA addresses the high poverty incidence in the region and is expected to boost the existing poverty reduction initiatives under the administration of ARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman.
The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) has allotted 3,473 scholarship slots under its Expanded Students Grants-in-Aid Program for Poverty Alleviation in six state universities and colleges in the ARMM.
It targets poor and deserving students in the region to take up priority programs of the CHED and other identified course offerings aligned with the government’s key growth areas. The grantees will receive a total P60,000 every academic year.
CHED Commissioner Prospero De Vera III said the college scholarship program will help the ARMM develop its human capital and advance social protection, which reduces the prevalence of poverty and the vulnerability of certain sectors by ensuring an efficient labor capital.
Meanwhile, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) will grant scholarship to 60,000 students in the ARMM who want to take up technical and vocational education and training (TVET) courses. It is part of agency’s Training-for-Work Scholarship Program.
Carmelita Mabologon, a female Teduray tribal leader from Barangay Kuya in South Upi, Maguindanao said the TESDA scholarship will provide around 500 unemployed youth in her community the opportunity to secure a stable source of livelihood.
The TVET courses allow students to gain the needed knowledge and skills for existing and in-demand jobs here and abroad. (Bureau of Public Information)
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