What a Christmas gift from the government to young people who want to finish college and improve their lives and those of their families!
Tuition fees in the undergraduate programs of state universities and colleges (SUC) in the Davao Region will no longer be required starting next year following the new P8.3-billion budget allocated for the Commission on Higher Education nationwide.
CHED Regional Director Raul Alvarez revealed this in an interview, adding that the five SUCs in Davao are included in the P8.3 billion budget as soon as the tuition-free policy is implemented by 2017.
The Southern Philippines Agri-Business and Marine and Aquatic School of Technology in Davao Occidental, Davao del Norte State College, Davao Oriental State, Compostela State, and the University of Southeastern Philippines (UsEP) are included in Davao Region’s list.
Alvarez explained that the primary intention is for all state universities and colleges to scrap undergraduate tuition since this has been bankrolled under the P8 billion budget.
Around 65,000 students enrolled in SUCs in Davao Region, according to Alvarez, will avail the free education; however, the students will still shoulder the miscellaneous fee.
“We will focus on this as soon as CHED-Davao will receive the guidelines regarding the free tuition fee and receive the budget,” said Alvarez.
The government will provide an additional P8 billion for higher education for next year which will be taken from the 2017 National Budget of P3.35 trillion for the free tuition for 114 SUCs nationwide.
The P8.3 billion is part of the P3.35 trillion Philippine budget which was recently ratified by Congress.
Also included in the CHED budget is P5.8 billion for the continued implementation of student financial assistance programs such as the PAMANA Study Grant Program, Iskolar ng Bayan, Tulong-Dunong Program and scholarship grants for children of sugarcane workers and other small farmers.
An allocation of P4.6 billion was also included for the continued implementation of the K to 12 programs and P763 million for the Philippine-California Advanced Research Institutes Project.
“All SUCs are going to be asked or instructed not to collect tuition, so we have to distribute this to all as well,” Alvarez added.
He also noted that eventually, they hope to come up with a formula that would prioritize the needy.
“That would be our initial preference, to calibrate it in a way that those who need it more will get more,” she said.
“Free tuition will help tremendously. It will be released I guess resources of families and students for the other costs because there are other expenses to getting a college education,” she added.
