MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara underscored yesterday the commitment of the Aquino administration to prioritize education with the enactment of the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education (UniFAST) Act, which ensures that government scholarship programs are given to the poorest and most deserving students.
“I thank President Aquino for signing UniFAST into law and proving that advancing quality education in the country remains to be the President’s top priority. I also thank the sponsors Sen. Pia Cayetano, Pasig Rep. Roman Romulo and our other colleagues who worked hard for its passage,” he said.
“Throughout the P-Noy administration, the education sector has consistently received a significant part of the national budget,” Angara noted.
With the enactment of UniFAST, Angara said the Filipino people could finally make sense of all the money the government gives for education to give it more direction, and make sure that the country really benefits from public funds being spent in the field of education.
Angara is principal author of Republic Act 10687 or the UniFAST law that mandates the government to put up a system and create a body that would oversee and harmonize all student financial assistance programs for a more targeted, speedy and sustained granting of scholarships.
A Commission on Higher Education (CHED) study revealed that while the government had in place up to 62 student financial assistance programs, these have only assisted about 60,000 students or a mere two percent of the 2.7 million Filipino college students.
The study also showed that even students from higher income families, who could do without assistance from the government, were granted financial aid.
“Our poor but deserving youth must be given the best education opportunity that they can afford with the assistance of the state. This is the main objective of this legislation that we have been pushing since our days in Congress,” Angara said.
Under the proposed measure, beneficiaries under the Iskolar ng Bayan Act, or the top 10 graduates of every public high school, will be prioritized in the provision of government-funded scholarships, while students belonging to poor families and marginalized sectors can easily avail themselves of the grants-in-aid.
The UniFAST Board will also be mandated to review the performance and assess the impact of the UniFAST program, and to conduct tracer studies to monitor the completion rate of student beneficiaries.
“The board would evaluate whether the financial assistance provided to our student beneficiaries actually helped them land a decent job after graduation, earn higher salaries, helped their families rise from poverty or make significant contributions to community service and public good,” said Angara, a known advocate of education reforms.