A legislator on Saturday pushed for the passage of a bill allowing college students who suddenly lost means to continue their education because their parents were laid off due to the COVID-19 crisis.
Assistant Majority Leader and Quezon City Rep. Alfred Vargas filed House Bill 7446 or the proposed Sagip Kolehiyo Act that proposes to expand the coverage of the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education Law by including students whose breadwinners were directly or indirectly affected by the pandemic.
Under the bill, college students whose parents or heads or households fall into the following categories will be eligible for a scholarship: No work, no pay workers; Jeepney and tricycle drivers; employees who used to be regularly employed but have been laid off due to business closure or retrenchment; hospitalized or have died due to COVID-19; and overseas Filipino workers who could not find local employment immediately.
“Each eligible college student will be entitled to a maximum assistance of P50,000 per semester that he or she is enrolled in a college, university or TESDA-accredited institution,” Vargas said.
Vargas, a member of the House committee on youth and sports development, said the bill will benefit middle class families whose financial standing has been affected by the pandemic.
“This bill will be of great help to parents who lost their jobs due to Covid-19.crisis. This health crisis should not prevent them from sending their children to school and pursue their dreams,” Vargas said.
In the bill’s explanatory note, Vargas said the bill will also benefit higher education institutions.
“We can hopefully boost the enrollment of private higher education institutions through the grant of scholarships so they can remain open and provide jobs to educators and non-teaching personnel,” he said.
Vargas noted the gap in the granting of aid to students whose families have been hit by the pandemic.
Based on his dialogue with officials from the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Vargas said more students are in danger of dropping out for the coming school year due to COVID-19. However, the UNIFAST Law prioritizes poor students for scholarships and other forms of financial assistance.
With a proposed P5-billion funding per semester, Vargas estimates that 100,000 college students can continue their studies with the passage of HB 7446.
In the Senator, meanwhile, Senator Win Gatchalian is seeking to boost the Alternative Learning System especially to reach out to more than 4 million learners who did not enroll this coming school year and give them a second chance.
“This is part of the education sector’s recovery efforts from the COVID-19 pandemic, “ said Gatchalian, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture.
Although the economic downturn and fears of the virus had resulted in the increase of the number of out-of-school children and youth, Gatchalian said that the ALS program will bridge these learners’ reintegration in the formal school system when the virus is suppressed and the economy bounces back.
ALS is the Department of Education’s parallel learning system that increases learning opportunities for out-of-school youth, adults, and children in special extreme cases. It also covers those who cannot access formal education due to economic, geographic, political, cultural, and social barriers.
These include persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, children in conflict with the law, persons deprived of liberty, migrant workers, and other marginalized sectors.
According to Gatchalian, DepEd should tap the ALS program in a final stretch to reach learners who are at risk of dropping out of school. Gatchalian pointed out that enrollment turnout for ALS has been dismal for this coming school year.
As of August 27, there are 361,398 ALS learners enrolled for this school year, only 49 percent of 738,929 learners enrolled last year.
Based on the World Bank’s May 2018 Philippines Education Note, at least 24 million Filipinos aged 15 and above have not completed basic education.
Gatchalian is the principal author and sponsor of Senate Bill No. 1365 or the ALS Act, which will institutionalize ALS under the proposed Bureau of Alternative Education and put up an ALS Community Learning Center in every city and municipality, making the program more accessible to potential enrollees.
Like DepEd’s Basic Education-Learning Continuity Plan (BE-LCP), the proposed measure also utilizes a mix of learning modalities such as digital learning, modular instruction, and radio and television-based instructions, among others.
The Senate approved the ALS Act on third and final reading last May. The House of Representatives has passed its version of ALS on third and final reading this August. A bicameral conference committee will soon convene to reconcile differing provisions on the measure.