Scholars wanted in public and private schools in Albay

LEGAZPI CITY , Philippines  – The provincial government of Albay has expanded its college scholarship grants this year to cover 12,000 students. Several colleges have also opened new campuses and agreed to a later opening of classes. The problem, though, is that there are not enough students to fill up the scholarship slots.

The local government of Albay has allocated P178 million for education programs under the Albay Higher Education Contribution Scheme (AHECS), which targets to produce a college graduate for every family in the province.

The scholarship program, the biggest ever implemented by the provincial government, grants full scholarship for vocational and four-year degree courses.

The program is expected to increase college enrollment in the province by 40 percent.

Up to now though, only around 6,000 students have availed of the scholarships.

Rosemarie Rey, president of the privately owned Southern Luzon Technological College Foundation Inc., said they opened campuses in remote towns in Albay such as Tiwi, Pioduran and Anislag after parents refused to let their children avail of the scholarship because of transportation and living costs. 

“Sensing their eagerness to avail of the scholarship but hindered by lack of logistics to attend classes in the town centers, we decided to instead bring our school through our satellite campuses to where our scholars reside,” Rey said.

Rey thanked town officials who assisted them in putting up the satellite campuses.  

She said the officials of the town of Tiwi lent a big portion of the town market to be converted into a campus.

“We are really grateful that our local officials are very supportive of programs like this AHECS scholarship,” she said.

But up to now, several private colleges are having difficulty filling up the slots.

In the education forum at the Ateneo de Manila University last week, the educational program of Albay attracted the attention of educators because of its tangible social impact.

Albay is the only province in the country with a Provincial Education Department, also known as Education Quality for Albayanos.

The province will sign tomorrow a memorandum of understanding with the Land Bank of the Philippines for a long-term loan of P1 billion for the scholarship program.

The budget of the province’s Special Education Fund, separate from the regular Provincial Education Department budget, also grew from P5 million in 2007 to P18 million in 2010. The fund is used in sports programs in schools as well as building maintenance.

The number of college enrollees in the province has grown 15 percent from 34,000 in 2007 to 38,000 this year because of provincial scholarships.