CEBU – Three out of every five Filipino high school graduates will be unable to proceed to college, mainly because of financial hardship, according to House Assistant Majority Leader and Cebu Rep. Gerald Anthony Gullas Jr.
To ease the problem, Gullas said he favors the appropriation of up to P11 billion to jump-start more public-funded college scholarships, grants-in-aid, study-now-pay-later plans and low-cost student loans under the proposed Unified Financial Assistance System for Higher and Technical Education (UniFAST).
“We support the proposal of the Senate to earmark fresh funding for all forms of government-sponsored financial aid programs for college students from marginal households. We are duty-bound to give more meaning to the hopes and dreams of disadvantaged families to send their sons and daughters to college,” Gullas, vice chairman of the House committee on higher and technical education, said in a statement sent to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
He said the Senate is set to approve on second reading the UniFAST bill, which the House previously passed on third and final reading. The Senate version of the bill that will be sent to the floor seeks to allocate an additional P11 billion for post-high school scholarships, he added.
“We have to produce more college graduates in the years ahead, if we are to promote full employment and assure more families a rising standard of living, as mandated by the 1987 Constitution,” Gullas said.
A previous survey showed that a majority of Filipinos still consider higher education as key for them to prosper and UniFAST seeks to boost the distribution of scholarships and other forms of financial assistance to needy college students.
Under the bill, the delivery of the aid will be reinforced via the improved targeting of recipients and unified standards for selection and retention. The national government is spending some P7.7 billion for post-secondary scholarships this year.
The country’s 112 state universities and colleges have a combined P3.5 billion available for scholarships. The Commission on Higher Education has another P2.2-billion for student financial aid.
Meanwhile, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority has P2 billion for its Training for Work Scholarship Program. Government also supports smaller college scholarship programs through the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act, National Agriculture and Fisheries Education System, and the Agriculture Competitiveness Enhancement Fund.
Gullas is author of several education bills, including a measure that seeks to reinforce the English proficiency of Filipinos by reinstating the language as the medium of instruction in all school levels. (Mindanao Examiner)
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