CHED funding for 'Tulong Dunong' 2020 realigned for virus response

MANILA, Philippines — Funds for supposedly new scholars of the Commission on Higher Education's "Tulong Dunong" program this 2020 have been realigned for the country's coronavirus response, a lawmaker said Wednesday. 

At the hearing in Congress for the commission's budget next year, Rep. Paul Daza (Northern Samar), one of the sponsors, reported that CHED has written thrice to the budget department for the release of the P3.6 billion funding but to no avail. 

"The funding for Tulong Dunong for 2020 was realigned because of the COVID response," he said. "Unfortunately, it hasn't been released."

Accepted students under the program receive P12,000 annually to help in paying for their schooling expenses such as tuition. 

Daza said congressional leaders are still working with the commission to resolve the issue hounding the program. 

CHED chairman Prospero de Vera in September told lawmakers that applications for the scholarship program have been suspended as they have yet to receive the budget. 

Still, he told Philstar.com in an exchange that scholars previously admitted under the Tulong Dunong will continue to receive the assistance which will be covered by the Tertiary Education Subsidy.

He also sought to explain that the realigned funds went to the government's COVID-19 response in general, and not particularly to the needs of the education sector.

"The COVID funding were taken from different agencies. There is no 1-to-1 change in allocation," he said. 

At the same House session, Daza said the commission is expecting a 10 to 15% decrease in college enrollment in private schools due to impacts of the ongoing health crisis. 

"In general, the enrollment for public universities have stayed the same or gone up a little bit. The reduction in enrollment is in private institutions," he said.

CHED's figures showed some 3.4 million college students enrolled in 2019, with 1.8 million in public and 1.6 million in private schools. 

Daza also said that around 90% of the reported 1,628 higher educational institutions have already started their classes under the blended-type of learning, with the remaining 10% to open this October. 

The commission, however, said it could not yet provide figures on the number of students this 2020 with enrollment still ongoing, when asked by Rep. Sarah Elago (Kabataan Party-list). 

A survey by the Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges had showed that around 44,000 undergraduate students may be unable to enroll this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Elago also pressed CHED for updates on the distribution of the P900 million cash aid under the Bayanihan 2 law for qualified students, faculty and non-teaching personnel. 

Of the P900 million both for CHED and the education department, some P300 million are allotted for students' assistance, while the remaining P600 million are for teachers and non-teaching staff. 

Daza, along with De Vera, said the two agencies are still in discussions on how to allocate the P600 million between K-12 and higher education faculty members. 

"I have been advised by no less than the chairman of CHED that he has to give them another week to finalize with DepEd on how to divide the 600 million, so within a week," the lawmaker said. 

The budget department has approved a P50.9 billion budget for CHED in 2021, slightly higher than P47.9 billion in the previous year. De Vera has said that P44 billion of this will go for the free higher education law.