Through its Scholarship Office, Central Mindanao Colleges has released its Tertiary Education Subsidy for its 78 Grantees at the CMC Students’ Activity Center on August 7, 2020. This provides educational opportunities to its constituents in the form of grants, discount privileges, and scholarship packages. An institutional scholarship program has been provided for such opportunities by the school to poor and deserving students.

The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education (UniFAST) continue to make Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) stipends available to grantees enrolled in private higher education institutions (PHEIs) as the country copes with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has released the amount of P3.6 billion to cover the partial payment of TES benefits to grantees enrolled in 404 PHEIs for the 1st semester of the Academic Year 2019-2020.

“The Commission is instructing these 404 private schools to immediately coordinate with their grantees on the best way to distribute TES while following their respective local government quarantine rules,” said CHED and UniFAST Board Chairman J. Prospero E. De Vera III.

According to De Vera, CHED will continue to facilitate downloading TES grants to the qualified beneficiaries in the remaining PHEIs as soon as funds are released by the DBM.

The TES is a government grants-in-aid program made possible through Republic Act 10931 that gives P60,000 per school year to financially-needy students in private schools and those studying in private schools in municipalities and cities without public universities. The TES is used by students to pay their tuition and miscellaneous fees and other education expenses. It is the flagship social development program of the Duterte administration on higher education.

What were the benefits given to TES grantees?

Private HEIs and TVIs:

Students enrolled in private HEIs and TVIs are entitled to the following benefits (Sections 23 and 24. IRR of RA 10931):

• Tuition and other school fees shall be equivalent to the tuition and other school fees of the nearest SUC and State-run TVI in their respective area.
• Allowance for books, supplies, transportation, and miscellaneous personal expenses, including a reasonable allowance for the documented rental or purchase of a personal computer or laptop, and other education-related expenses
• Allowance for room and board costs incurred by the student.

By Erolle Linus Miranda, Institutional Marketing and Communications Officer