SOME 103 students enrolled in the Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) here have received their stipends from the Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) as Ilocos Norte copes with the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) crisis.
This was after the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) released on May 15 some PHP3.6 billion to cover the partial payment of TES stipends to students enrolled in 404 private higher education institutions (HEIs) for the first semester of Academic Year 2019-2020.
The TES is being implemented by the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education (UniFAST) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).
An initial release of the subsidy to continuing TES grantees from 51 state and local universities and colleges in the country was also made amid the community quarantine. These releases will continue to the remaining public and private HEIs when funds become available for distribution.
“The university has coordinated with the local government units (LGUs) in Ilocos Norte so that the grantees can immediately get their stipends following their respective LGU quarantine rules,” Dr. Elizabeth Marfel Gagni, director of MMSU’s Office for Student Affairs and Services (OSAS), said during the distribution of the stipends at the university’s covered court last Thursday.
The TES is a flagship social development program of the Duterte administration on higher education. It is a government grants-in-aid program that was made possible through the enactment of Republic Act 10931 or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, which institutionalizes free tuition and exemption from other fees in state universities and colleges (SUCs), and local universities and colleges (LUCs) in the Philippines.
For state universities like MMSU, each beneficiary who belongs to the low-income bracket is entitled to a cash assistance of PHP40,000 per school year.
TES grantees from private institutions, on the other hand, receive a higher amount, which covers PHP20,000 for tuition and an additional PHP40,000 allowance per academic year.
“I am very much thankful for the amount I received,” said Cecile Joy Luis, 20, of Barangay San Matias in Laoag City and a BS Education student at the MMSU College of Teacher Education.
The amount, she said, “is a big help to me and to my parents who are beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
Luis said her family’s PHP4,200 bi-monthly subsidy from the DSWD is not enough for their family since she and her four siblings are studying in high school and college.
Meanwhile, MMSU president Shirley Agrupis advised the student-recipients to “use your stipends wisely, especially now that we are implementing the Virtual Learning Environment, where students are under the 'new normal' on flexible learning system by making use of all available online resources for a virtual education experience.”
She advised them to use part of their stipend to buy a gadget, such as a tablet or a laptop, so they could cope with the new normal system of education.
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