(Eagle News) — This school opening, the Philippine government is now implementing free tuition for “higher education” or college students enrolled in the country’s 113 state universities and colleges (SUCs), with an allocation of P8.3 billion.
“I just wanted to announce that the P8.3 billion allocation for free public higher education is now being implemented,” announced Commission on Higher Education (CHED) commissioner Prospero De Vera III earlier today in Malacanang.
De Vera said that the implementing rules and regulations for the P8.3 billion tuition assistance for all undergraduate students in the country’s SUCs was signed last April 20.
“This P8 billion allocation for free undergraduate education is now being implemented in state universities and classes (SUCs) that opened classes in June. The others are opening in August,” he said.
De Vera, a former University of the Philippines Vice-President for Public Affairs, said that with the implementation of the free tuition fee for SUCs this year, they would “do the necessary adjustments” for whatever problems that would crop up.
Last month, the bicameral conference committee approved the bill granting free college education in SUCs and local universities and colleges (LUCs) in the Philippines.
Senators described this as a major reform in the country’s education system.
Free tuition for poor but deserving students is one of the promises of President Rodrigo Duterte at the start of his term.
But he stressed that there was a “need to safeguard the proper implementation of the provision of free tuition fee” in his veto message that accompanied the 2017 budget, which Duterte signed also last December.
“It is important to underscore that we must give priority to financially disadvantaged but academically able students,” he said. (Eagle News Service)
