CEBU, Philippines – The Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) joins the Province of Cebu in providing full college scholarship to selected high school students.
The Province of Cebu is providing assistance to high school valedictorians such as scholarships and summer jobs under its program, "Pasidungog Alang sa mga Valedictorians."
DBP chairman Jose Nuñez, in his meeting with Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia, announced that the DBP will provide scholarships to salutatorians as its counterpart to the Province's program.
With education as one of her top priorities, Garcia signed an agreement with two state colleges in the province to provide scholarships to selected high school students sometime last year.
The agreement allows high school students endorsed by the Province to avail of free tuition when they enroll at the Cebu Normal University and the Cebu Technological University.
After seeing the governor's efforts in ensuring that these students will get through college, the two state colleges welcomed and cooperated with the province by offering free tuition fees.
Aside from free tuition, scholars also receive monthly allowance although they will have to maintain high grades in return. Aside from the automatic scholarship for valedictorians and salutatorians, two years ago, Garcia also revived the Cebu Tertiary Education Assistance Program (CTEAP) which was started by his father, then governor Pablo Garcia.
CTEAP now has 288 scholars, 85 of whom are new students, in the different colleges in the city and the province.
Seeing the efforts of the scholars, the governor plans to raise to P2,000 from P1,000 their monthly allowance.
Aside from that, the provincial government is also giving P5,000 additional cash incentives to all scholars and another P10,000 for those who had already graduated.
Scholars who enrolled in ladderized courses will receive P1,000 each. Those who passed the national exam will be given an additional P30,000.
According to the governor, as much as possible they need to open doors for deserving students who wish to be a college degree holder.
Scholars under CTEAP are scholars from the different parts of Cebu province who were screened by the Local School Board.
The scholars have to maintain an average grade of 2.5 and render community service in a government office of their choice during summer vacation. (FREEMAN)