Increase in grad fee subsidy eyed

Cebu City Councilor Dizon said he is lobbying for an increase in the tuition subsidy of beneficiaries of the city’s scholarship program.

Since consultations have yet to be done for the increase, Dizon said he still doesn’t know how much the increase will be.

“Based on a public hearing conducted by the council two or three months ago, the parents of the scholars said the P10,000 given by the city for tuition is really not enough especially for those enrolled in private colleges and universities,” Dizon told reporters.

Dizon, who heads the education committee, said he made the proposal since the city can save money due to the implementation of the K to 12 program.

The councilor said the city also wants to encourage scholars to enroll in private colleges in order to decongest the number of scholars in the public universities like Cebu Normal University (CNU). The city’s scholarship program started in 2010.

Ordinance
“After five years, it’s about time to revisit to scholarship program,” Dizon said.

The Cebu City government earlier released P3.7 million as graduation fee subsidy to the Department of Education (DepEd) for 26,000 public elementary and high school graduates this year.

This is covered by an ordinance which gives P150 subsidy to each graduate.

Since there will be no elementary and high school graduates next year due to the K to 12 program, Dizon is considering another use for the funds appropriated for the graduation fees subsidy.

“I also learned that there are approximately 11,000 pre-schoolers who graduate every year from 200 nursery schools in the city. We can use the money we can save to also give subsidy to them,” Dizon said.

He said the amount will be less than P2 million only. Dizon said he learned about the situation of pre-schoolers through consultations held by the council’s education committee with the city’s Early Childhood Care Development Program (ECCDP) which is under the Department of Social Welfare and Services.