The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) said on Sunday, July 26, that it has started the release of Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) stipends to 292,438 students in both public and private colleges and universities for the concluded school year 2019-2020, amounting to P6 billion.

Those who will receive are as follows:

• 3,529 Expanded Students’ Grants-in-Aid Program for Poverty Alleviation (ESGP-PA) beneficiaries (1st semester)
• 44,224 new grantees in public HEIs or higher education institutions (1st semester) 
• 97,173 continuing private HEIs grantees (1st semester and part of 2nd semester)
• 147,512 continuing Tulong Dunong Program beneficiaries (1st and 2nd semester)

The CHED said students who will receive the tuition subsidy are from state universities and colleges (SUCs), local universities and colleges (LUCs), and private HEIs that have complied with the necessary requirements by the agency and the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education or UniFAST.

“The Commission is releasing the additional TES stipends as soon as the money is downloaded to us by DBM (Department of Budget and Management) because we know that the students need this badly during the pandemic,” CHED Chairperson Prospero de Vera III said. 

De Vera said that he instructed all public and private schools to fast-track the distribution of the tuition subsidy so students can use it to pay existing balances and enroll to classes.

Classes will open in colleges and universities in August through the “flexible learning” approach.

“Flexible learning” for HEIs involves a combination of digital and non-digital technology, which according to the CHED doesn’t necessarily require connectivity to the internet. 

According to De Vera, universities and colleges have the freedom to choose what mode would be effective for them: pure online, pure modular, or a combination of the two.

The CHED said that a total of 23,319 students in 51 SUCs and LUCs received the education subsidy in March. At least 404 private colleges and universities nationwide disbursed the subsidy to 120,798 grantees, while another batch of stipends were released to 105 public schools for 62,671 students. – Rappler.com