Legazpi City—Free college education for Filipino youth, in general, is now a reality, following the P41-billion Memorandum of Agreement recently signed by state universities and colleges (SUCs) and local universities and colleges (LUCs) with the Commission on Higher Education and the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education.
Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda, principal author of Republic Act 10931 or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act (UAQTEA) of 2018, said free college education is a bold step toward a broader middle class, and constitutes President Rodrigo Duterte’s “next wave social revolution in building a more egalitarian society.”
President Duterte, who signed the Act last August, witnessed the ceremonial signing of the MoA last June 13 in Malacañang and praised those who worked hard to make the elusive dream of free tertiary education in the country a reality.
Albay’s 30,000 enrollees this school year are among the program’s beneficiaries. Of the total, about 18,000 will be at state-run Bicol University in this city and its campuses in Tabaco City, Polangui and Guinobatan towns.
Some 12,000 more will be in local community colleges including the Daraga Community College, Rapu-rapu Community College and Manito Community College.
UAQTEA had drawn much of its elements from the Albay model on Universal Access to College Education program which Salceda successfully pioneered when he was governor of his province for nine years until 2016.
His program helped nearly 90,000 students complete their studies and served as the “inclusive tool and key to Albay’s poverty reduction from 41% in 2007 to 17.1% in 2015.”
One significant provision of UAQTEA, Salceda explained is that poor student, especially those from families enrolled with the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, in the absence of SUCs and LUCs in their localities, can enter private higher education institutions funded by a government loan through UniFAST, a choice they never had before, and one that provides them a fair chance at fighting poverty.
Salceda said the law also provides other mechanisms designed to increase the participation rate in tertiary education from all socio-economic classes and provide all Filipinos equal opportunities to quality education in both private and public educational institutions.
Free education, he stressed, is a right of every citizen and the moral duty of the state, and UAQTEA is a most vital social legislation in terms of significance and permanence.
The P41-billion allocation for UAQTEA for its first year of implementation forms part of the Duterte administration’s Medium Term Development Program, and is designed to address social inequality, added Salceda, senior vice chair of the House committee on appropriations, whom CHED refers to as “champion of free tertiary education” in Congress.
Under the program, for SY 2018-19, some 300,000 students from families enrolled in 4Ps admitted to college will also be provided subsidies for their cost of living while studying estimated at P3,500 per month for 10 months for 4 years, and a one-time P5,000 for the book allowance.
Some 1.3 million students are expected to enroll under UAQTEA for SY 2018-19. For next year, the administration plans to allocate an additional P10 billion to support 4Ps youths studying in private schools.
Heads of the country’s 112 SUCs and 78 CHED-recognized LUCs signed the MoA and UniFAST. The latter administers all government-funded modalities of the Student Financial Assistance Programs for tertiary education – and special purpose education assistance – in both public and private institutions.
Salceda said UAQTEA’s free tertiary and technical-vocational education would now give poor students, especially the academically able among them, the drive to strive farther up the educational ladder, without worrying about high costs which had previously demoralized and forced many youths into just seeking low paying jobs to assist their families.
