Friday, July 25, 2008 PGMA allocates P74-M for education
PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has allocated P74.4 million for her education flagship program in the region and in the nearby three provinces of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
She has designated the regional office of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to oversee the implementation of the program dubbed as "Student Assistance Fund for Education (SAFE)."
CHED Regional Director Emmylou Yanga said that the P74.4 million is part of the President's P1 billion allocation purposely to provide financial assistance package to indigent students in the country who are enrolled in public and private State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) this school year.
Yanga said the funds come from the increased collection of the Value Added Tax (VAT).
She said that of the total P74.4 million, the amount of P38.4 million will finance the SAFE loan of poor and deserving students.
The remaining P36 million will be for the poor students taking up agriculture, fisheries, agro-business, veterinary medicine, forestry, English, science, math, teacher education, maritime, engineering and environmental science.
The SAFE loan will be provided to students who are already in the third, fourth and fifth or graduating year while the scholarship grant is only for freshmen students, Yanga said.
The scholars would be allotted P5,000 per semester or a total of P40,000 for the duration of the course.
The scholars in the private schools will receive P7,500 per semester or a total of P60,000 for the duration of the four-year course. (Bong P. Garcia)
