THE Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) under the Student Grant in Aid Program for Poverty Alleviation (SGAPPA) is set to support the college education of 980 Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) beneficiary children in Cordillera for this academic year 2014 – 2015.
DSWD 4Ps Regional Program Coordinator Irene Bungay announced this in a media forum recently.
Bungay said the scholarship program will be allotting P60,000 educational assistance per year or around P30,000 per semester, which will cover tuition fees, allowances, books and stipend of qualified scholars. The slots were divided in the different state universities and colleges in the region.
So far, there are around 1,841 who applied for the scholarship and have already taken the entrance examination and we are just awaiting the final results from our SUCs, Bungay said.
"The 980 slots will be added to the current 281 SGAPPA scholars who are enrolled in various courses in the different SUCs in the region," she added.
Meantime, Bungay reported the expansion of the 4Ps educational assistance to 18 years old and below (from the previous 14 years and below) children of the program household beneficiaries that are currently enrolled in high school.
"Instead of the usual P300 educational grant, the 4Ps household beneficiaries will get P500 per high school child for a maximum of three children and there are around 33,201 households in the region that have potential high school children that we are now validating," Bungay said.
The 4Ps currently has 59,116 household beneficiaries all over Cordillera. (Carlito Dar)