Cash reward for honor grads pushed

CEBU, Philippines -  A city councilor is proposing an ordinance providing incentives to all Cebu City scholars who will graduate with honors.

City Councilor Alvin Dizon drafted an ordinance called the “Cebu City Scholar Honor Graduate Incentive Program,” citing the need to remunerate the academic achievement of scholars.

“Incentives must be provided to Cebu City scholars in order to recognize and reward their academic achievement and to encourage others to excel in their studies,” Dizon, who heads the City Council’s committee on education, said.

The proposed measure seeks to give P20,000 for a scholar who will graduate as Summa Cum Laude, P15,000 for a Magna Cum Laude graduate, and P10,000 for a Cum Laude graduate.

Dizon said the incentives will be given every Cebu City Charter Day, which is celebrated every 24th of February.

Section 3 of the proposed measure stipulates that the budget allocated for the program will be included in the city’s annual budget.

Currently, the city government, through City Ordinance 2333, or the ordinance establishing the Cebu City scholarship program, grants financial assistance to all qualified scholars in the city in the amount of P10,000 per semester.

For this school year, the city has at least 16,000 scholars enrolled in 24 accredited schools in the city.

The scholarship program started in 2010 and the first batch of scholars who completed four-year courses graduated in March 2014.

“Among the 2,665 Cebu City scholars who graduated, five were Magna Cum Laude and 105 were Cum Laude,” the councilor said.

For the implementation of the proposed measure, accredited schools are tasked to submit the list of scholars who graduated with honors to the scholarship committee, which will then process the necessary vouchers for the granting of the cash incentives.

Dizon’s proposed ordinance was referred to the committee on laws for comments and recommendations.  (FREEMAN)