Free-Tuition on June :What aspiring scholars should know about!

The Senate passed on the Affordable Higher Education for All Act. on its 3rd and final reading on March 13, 2017. The Senate Bill 1304 received 18 affirmatives votes.

The bill aims to institutionalize a free tuition in 112 state universities in the country.

But what do students have to expect from the new tuition-free policy once President Rodrigo Duterte signed the law? What does the bill says?

Lawmakers predict that the bill will be signed by the president by June or July. Once the law is signed, student can enjoy free tuition by the second semester of school year 2017-2018. Below are highlights discussed by Sen. Aquino in its bicam version of the bill:

• It will cover both tuition and other school fees of undergraduate Filipino students enrolled in SUCs, LUCs, and tech-voc institutions run by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda). 

• Students in both public and private higher education institutions (HEIs) have access to scholarship grants and student loans. Those who want to pursue a post-graduate course can avail themselves of student loans.

There are 231 public HEIs, 112 SUCs, 105 LUCs, and 14 "other government HEIs" as of school year 2016-2017 according from the figures provided by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and a total of 1.62 million students enrolled in public HEIs.



"We will allow the universities to come up with a mechanism to maintain a certain requirement, standard so that you're still entitled to free tuition. What we want to avoid are students who keep repeating subjects and overstaying in schools, so we have to make sure that the student is serious and the student maintains the standards," Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said in Tag-lish.

Aquino stated that if it is necessary, students can avail themselves all benefits stated in the bill. For an instance, using himself as an example, "If I'm studying in an SUC, my tuition is free, other school fees are free, but I need help with my transportation and meal allowance, I can apply for a TES or the Tertiary Education Subsidy," he explained. "For example, I'm already finished with my undergraduate program, I'm going to take up law, or medicine, or a masteral course, I can also apply for a student loan program. The payment of the student loan will be tied up with GSIS and SSS payments, so that we're sure it's collected," Aquino added.

Source: Rappler

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