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Friday, March 29, 2024

House OKs bill on universal tertiary education

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The House of Representatives on Tuesday unanimously approved the Universal Access to Tertiary Education Act, a consolidated measure that provides free tuition in state universities and colleges, technical vocational institutions and schools, private colleges and technical vocational schools. 

The measure also provides subsidies for those in income deciles one to five, and student loans for those in deciles one to eight.

Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda, original author of the bill, hailed Congress’ approval of the measure as a “real game changer that will provide lasting effects on the country’s growth” and a “genuine contribution” to nation building.

The consolidated bill, based on Salceda’s House Bill 2771 filed last year, was approved by the House on second reading. It is expected to be enacted into law shortly, since the Senate has already passed its own version of the measure.

HB 2771 was consolidated with two other measures filed by party-list Reps. Antonio Tinio (Teachers) and Sarah Jane Elago (Kabataan).

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Delighted over the speedy action by his colleagues on the measure, Salceda called the development as “another Albay Model becoming law soon.”

“Education can’t wait,” he said in another social media post.

As Albay governor for nine years, Salceda instituted free tuition in all community colleges in the province, provided scholarship grants and loans in SUCs and private colleges, which amounted to 24 percent of total provincial budget and helped graduate some 88,000 students. 

He considers the House approval of the bill as “a major victory – a legacy borne out of Albay’s commitment to higher education for all,” since it absorbed the major elements of his original bill.

Salcedo’s “higher education contribution scheme” had become the National Student Loan Program.

“No more tuition and miscellaneous expenses can be charged by SUCs in the next semester SY 2017 to 2018. No tuition in TESDA’s TVIs. Non-repayable subsidy for those belonging to lower 50 percent. And student loans to those belonging to Decile 1 to 8 and repayable based on incomes/employment,” posted Salceda on his social media account.

The measure’s highlights include full funding of SUCs with its proposed P38-billion budget, and another P21.6 billion for other expenses. 

Among others, the bill calls for sufficient funding for Technical Vocational Education and Training or TVET in TVIs run by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority with P6.7 billion, which was adopted from Salceda’s original HB 4771 version.

It also offers a Tertiary Education Subsidy of P15 billion, limited to Decile 1 to 5 students, for tuition and other expenses in accredited private universities and colleges, SUCs and TESDA-accredited TVIs, which were from the bills filed by Reps. Dakila Carlo E. Cua (Quirino) and Carlo Alexei B. Nograles (Davao City).

The measure aims to provide other mechanisms to increase the participation rate in tertiary education from all socio-economic classes; provide Filipinos with equal opportunities to quality education in both private and public educational institutions; give priority to academically able students from poor families; ensure optimized utilization of government resources in education; and recognize the complementary roles of public and private institutions in the tertiary educational system.

Its other salient features include the National Student Loan Program with a P15-billion allocation, limited to Decile 1 to 8, for tuition and other expenses in accredited HEIs and SUCs. 

The loan is payable upon the beneficiary’s gainful employment after graduation when his/her gross income reaches the minimum critical threshold, and will be collected as additional percentage on top of his/her SSS or GSIS premiums.

This provision was wholly taken from Salceda’s Higher Education Contribution Scheme or HECS proposal, patterned after the Australian model of free higher education, which has been renamed NSLP. 

The bill also aims to strengthen the unified financial assistance system for tertiary education, and amends an older legislation, Republic Act 10687 or the UniFAST Law, which will draw up the beneficiaries’ repayment scheme.

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