Congress OKs financial aid for students

MANILA, Philippines - The Senate and the House of Representatives have ratified the conference committee report on a proposed law that would improve the granting of college scholarships, grants-in-aid and low-cost educational loans to poor students.

“The bill should be ready for President Aquino’s signature in a matter of days,” Pasig City Rep. Roman Romulo, chairman of the House committee on higher and technical education, said yesterday.

He said the proposed Unified Financial Assistance System for Higher and Technical Education, or UniFAST, would enable a greater number of qualified college students from poor families to access public-funded scholarships and other forms of financial support.

“We are determined to help academically able and highly motivated students from underprivileged families achieve their hopes and dreams of obtaining a college education,” he said.

UniFAST seeks to hasten the delivery of state-funded scholarships and all forms of student financial assistance through the proper targeting of beneficiaries and the adoption of uniform standards for selection and retention.

“The unified system will ensure that student financial aid programs are adequately funded at all times, and effectively carried out to benefit the greatest number of students who need the most help,” Romulo said.

In the past, he said many college students who needed help had been left out of government’s financial aid programs, while others who could do without the assistance were getting it.

“We’ve also had cases wherein needy students received financial help for a year, and then the funding dries up. UniFAST will address all these issues, which have been attributed to the fragmentation of aid programs, the flawed targeting of recipients, and the insufficient allocation of funds per student,” he said.

He added that several government-sponsored student financial aid plans have been developed over the years, with various agencies administering them based on all sorts of guidelines and targets, thus the fragmentation.

“With UniFAST in place, we will have a fairly cohesive and well-managed student financial aid plan that is highly responsive and relevant,” he said.

“Enough funds will go to students who actually need help. And they will be enrolled in high-priority courses that will assure them gainful employment after graduation,” Romulo said.

Under UniFAST, a board will synchronize all financial aid programs based on a unified and definite set of guidelines and targets.

The UniFAST board will be composed of the heads of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), one representative each from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), and four representatives from associations of private higher educational institutions.

Romulo said the national government is spending some P7.7 billion for post-secondary scholarships this year.

He said the 112 state universities and colleges (SUCs) have a combined P3.5 billion available for scholarship, apart from the CHED’s P2.2-billion allotment for student financial aid and TESDA’s P2 billion for its training for work scholarship program.

Before UniFAST, Romulo authored the Iskolar ng Bayan law, which provides the top 10 graduates of every public high school with scholarships in SUCs.