CHEd wants additional P12.5-billion budget for scholars

Commission on Higher Education Chairperson Prospero de Vera III. (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO)

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) said it would not be able to accommodate the request of a new batch of students seeking financial assistance under one of its programs after it failed to secure additional funding under the 2023 budget.

During CHEd’s budget deliberation before the House of Representatives committee on appropriations on Friday, Prospero de Vera III, chair of CHEd, sought an additional P12.5 billion to fund 205,584 new grantees for Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) for students enrolled in private schools in areas without state universities and colleges (SUCs) or local universities and colleges (LUCs).

Continuing beneficiaries

“Our funds are just sufficient to cover continuing beneficiaries. We cannot open new applications for [the next academic year] because we have no budget for it,” he told lawmakers.

“We can only commit to provide TES to continuing TES beneficiaries for the academic year 2022 to 2023,” he added.

Based on CHEd data, there are 364,743 TES grantees for the academic year 2021 to 2022, down from 437,148 TES beneficiaries or 16.56 percent from the previous academic year.

TES is a grant-in-aid program under the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act signed in 2017.

TES grantees enrolled in private schools will be entitled to a maximum of P60,000 per school year, inclusive of tuition and other fees, allowance, and other expenses. TES grantees enrolled in SUCs or LUCs are entitled to receive P40,000.

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