MANILA, Philippines—Calling all public high schools with outstanding graduating students.
Education Secretary Armin Luistro has announced that The Kabayan Ten Outstanding Public School Students (TOPS) awards is accepting nominations for exceptional students who would be granted college scholarships.
Students of the Batasan Hills High School attend their graduation ceremony in Quezon City, east of Manila, on March 29, 2012. AFP FILE PHOTO
In an Oct. 8 memorandum, Luistro said the DepEd, the Kabayan Noli de Castro Foundation Inc. and SM Foundation Inc. were offering full college scholarships to outstanding public high school students for school year 2014-15.
TOPS has for its theme “Edukasyon, Tugon sa Hamon ng Kahirapan (Education, the Answer to Poverty).”
The awards aim to recognize poor but deserving public high school students who have shown exemplary performance in academics and leadership and to “encourage the Filipino youth to lead the way towards genuine public service,” Luistro said.
The full college scholarship grants will go to underprivileged public secondary school students who achieved success in academics and leadership through their hard work and perseverance and who served as an inspiration to their peers.
The awardees of the Kabayan Academic Excellence and the Kabayan Exemplary Leadership must have shown “by his or her experience the values of hard work, determination, honesty, integrity and dedication to public service.”
Four winners—one each from Luzon, the Visayas, Mindanao and the National Capital Region—will be chosen in each category.
Two more students, who have shown academic excellence or exemplary leadership despite extreme hardship and challenging circumstances, will be chosen by the national search committee as recipients of the Kabayan Special Achievement Award out of 40 finalists nationwide.
To qualify for any of the awards, a nominee must: Be a graduating public high school student not more than 25 years old; have good moral character who was neither subjected to school disciplinary action nor charged with any crime; and whose parents do not earn a combined annual income of more than P150,000.
The deadline for entries in the school level is on Nov. 14. For the submission of nominations to the DepEd office of the undersecretary for partnerships and external linkages for the national level search, the last day is on Dec. 19.
Final judging by the national level selection committee will be held from Jan. 23 to Feb. 6 when, out of nominations from the division offices nationwide, 40 finalists will be chosen from Luzon, the Visayas, Mindanao and the NCR.
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