MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) is spending P8 million for its Study Now Pay Later program this coming school year.
Isabel Inlayo, director of CHED’s Office of Student Services, said this year’s student loan program covers 538 beneficiaries nationwide.
The program provides financial assistance to deserving students in private higher education institutions.
Inlayo said CHED provides an average loan of P60,000 to each qualified student per year.
At least 16, 907 students have benefited from the program since it was launched in 1999.
However, Inlayo said only P26.8 million or 12.36 percent of the P217-million loan facility was paid as of last December.
Inlayo said the low repayment rate was due to the lack of trained personnel to undertake collections, inability of beneficiaries to immediately find employment and low salaries of employed beneficiaries.
“We need to regulate because of the limited funds,†Inlayo said.
Under the Study Now Pay Later program, poor but deserving students are granted loans for payment of tuition and other school fees as well as expenses on books and board and lodging.
The beneficiaries are supposed to pay the loan two years after securing employment at 6 percent annual interest.
Inlayo said CHED is pushing for the immediate passage of the Unified Financial Assistance System for Higher and Technical Education bill to address the low repayment rate.
She said the bill, which was passed on second reading last year, will “rationalize all the publicly-funded student assistance.â€