Junior and senior public high school students in Parañaque will receive a yearly allowance of P5,000 or P500 monthly starting this month from the city government, Mayor Edwin Olivarez announced Monday.
Olivarez said they have allocated P300 million this year for the monthly allowance of 48,000 deserving high school students after the city council approved an ordinance last year for this purpose.
Covered under the special allowance are students from Grades 7 to 12 of public schools within the territorial jurisdiction of Parañaque and those who were listed from the Department of Education roster.
Under the city’s implementing rules and regulations, qualified students will receive their monthly allowance through automated teller machine cards from semi-government banks.
The ATM card will be distributed personally by Olivarez, city councilors and school officials to students in their respective school campuses during a simple program this week, public information chief Mar Jimenez said.
“Aside from free tuition fee in the city’s public high schools, all high school students will be receiving cash allowance starting this school year 2019-2020. Students will now have no reasons to miss school,” said Olivarez.
The mayor said the city’s objective of giving the allowance is to remove financial constraints that may be discouraging students from attending school. At the same time, it helps students to augment their expenses as they explore and excel in their education and advance their knowledge, Olivarez said.
He also explained that giving allowance is not just for financial assistance but can also help high schoolers learn money management.
Under the ordinance, the P500 allowance will be given to the qualified students monthly starting this month, provided they attend their classes 80 percent of the time. The teachers will be in charge of monitoring the students’ attendance.
Jimenez cautioned parents and students who want to avail of the program not to release any information to any parties, as it might be used elsewhere.