Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said the city government may have to increase the number of city scholars to 20,000 by 2010 to help more underprivileged public high school graduates get a college education.
Belmonte urged students to take advantage of the city government’s scholarship program, which he described “as a golden opportunity to enhance the integration of their families into the mainstream of national development.”
“Our most important investments in city development are our regenerating investments in our human assets, through knowledge creation and expansion,” he said.
Quezon City is maintaining 12,000 scholars for this school year, of which 3,000 are new scholars.
Beneficiaries of the city’s scholarship and youth development program are entitled to a financial grant of P4,000 to cover the payment of tuition for one academic semester and a P1,000 stipend.
Those enrolled in state colleges and universities enjoyed an increased stipend of P1,000 to P1,500. To date, there are about 16 state and 112 private universities and colleges participating in the city government’s scholarship program.
Schools that register the most number of city scholars are the Polytechnic University of the Philippines and the QC Polytechnic University at Barangay San Bartolome in Novaliches.
To qualify, the aspiring beneficiary must be a graduate of any Quezon City public school, a bona fide city resident and must have a school average of 85 percent and above.
Students who graduated on top of their class are automatically given scholarship grants, including a book allowance of P1,000.
The city’s scholarship program was initiated in 1991 by virtue of a council resolution. Under the scheme, scholars are provided with financial assistance for one academic year, renewable every semester until they finish a college degree in four to five years.
The Quezon City Polytechnic University is also offering a socialized scholarship program for poor but deserving graduates from the city’s public high schools. – Perseus Echeminada