CHED releases P228M student aid

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) said it has released P228 million worth of student assistance for scholars enrolled in 55 state universities and colleges (SUCs).

CHED officer-in-charge J. Prospero de Vera said they have begun releasing the funds in response to concerns by student beneficiaries of the Expanded Students’ Grants-in-Aid Program for Poverty Alleviation (ESGP-PA).

The program provides financial assistance to poor but deserving students belonging to families listed in the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

De Vera said some ESGP-PA scholars failed to receive their stipends earlier this year due to the transition to the implementation of Republic Act 10931 or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act.

Under the previous set-up, the DSWD was tasked to select and validate the scholars qualified for the program, the funding of which was already lodged with the SUCs.

But with the new law, the ESGP-PA beneficiaries were transferred to the new Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) program, which requires SUCs to bill CHED for the funds.

The TES, which has a funding of P16 billion, consolidates most of the student assistance programs of the government for college students in private and public schools.

“Several problems were encountered in the transition of the ESGP-PA program from the DSWD and SUCs to CHED-UniFAST (Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education). Some scholars failed to receive their stipends early this year when their SUCs failed to obligate their payment of AY 2017-2018 2nd semester stipends in December 2017,” De Vera said.

“The inclusion of ESGP-PA scholars in the TES database under RA 10931 also caused the late submission of the list of scholars of some SUCs,” he added.

In addition to the funding for scholars in the 55 SUCs, De Vera said they are also processing the billing request of another 37 government higher education institutions worth P216 million.

“The remaining 17 SUCs still have deficiencies in their billing statements and are awaiting evaluation on required compliances,” said De Vera.