P1 billion pushed for government scholarships at SUCs

CEBU, Philippines —  Students enrolled in private universities and colleges will continue to enjoy the scholarship grants from the government, said Senator Sonny Angara.

Angara, in a statement, said the Senate is pushing for at least P1 billion budget to help private school students as the government only provides free tuition to State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) and local universities and colleges (LUCs) nationwide.

Angara said the amount is “not even a lot” compared to the tens of billions of pesos that the SUCs and LUCs will get from the 2019 national budget.

"I’m trying to convince my colleagues to increase that fund kasi hindi naman ma-absorb ng SUCs lahat ‘yan. It will be years before we are able to absorb these students,” Angara said.

He warned of a “deluge of students into our educational institutions” with the full implementation of the Free College Education Law, which he co-authored.

Angara said providing budget for private schools through student scholarship programs is a great way to give back to the institutions that provided outstanding education to Filipino students at a time when the government had no funds.

 "When the government had no funds, who raised our kids? Who prepared them to adulthood? It is the private schools and universities," Angara said.

In his sponsorship speech for the budget of the Commission on Higher Education, Angara said the government will get to spend P46 billion to implement the Free College Education Law in 2019, making it the biggest budget for free college education in the country’s history.

The amount is P6 billion higher than this year’s budget of P40 billion for the implementation of the free college education.

For next year’s implementation, the Senate allocated P16 billion for free tuition in SUCs and LUCs, P27 billion for the Tertiary Education Subsidy program, P2 billion for Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, and P1 billion for student loan. — KBQ (FREEMAN)