LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Some one hundred fifty-one students from the various barangays in the province will be able to pursue their desire to acquire their desired higher level of education after they were chosen to be recipients of the Benguet Scholarship Program for college students.
The beneficiaries of the aforesaid program who were screened by the concerned committee recently signed their contracts with the provincial government headed by Gov. Melchor D. Diclas for them to be able to get their prescribed financial assistance that they could use to defray their expenses for their studies in the different higher education institutions preferably in Baguio and Benguet.
Under the province’s scholarship program, each of the screened and qualified students who come from the province’s 140 barangays will be receiving a financial assistance of P20,000 annually or P10,000 per semester for them to be able to pursue their students and acquire their desired higher level of education so that they can be of help in uplifting the living condition of their families by being productive professionals in the future.
Based on the present guidelines in ascertaining the recipients of the scholarship program, one student per barangay will be chosen to be receiving the said assistance from the provincial government to be able to sustain their quest for a higher level of education in the future.
Previously, there were only 8 qualified students per municipality which is equivalent to 104 scholars who had been benefiting from the implementation of the said scholarship program.
On the other hand, former students who were able to excel in sports or technical skills, three Alternative Learning System (ALS) passers and 4 additional scholars who waived their last from last year’s batch of beneficiaries were given the similar opportunity to pursue their studies under the provincial scholarship program.
Diclas credited the members of the provincial board for increasing the available scholarship slots to 140 which is the actual number of barangays in the province where there were some 4 and 2 slots for those who excelled in sports and technical skills, respectively, aside from 1 ALS passer per district to give chance to more students who are in need of the financial assistance for them to pursue their studies amidst the ongoing Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
Further, he also commended the provincial officials and employees who went around the province to conduct the screening of the qualified beneficiaries that compose the 15 batch of recipients and making the process successful despite the prevailing implementation of the minimum public health standards to avoid the occurrence of untoward incidents that may trigger another surge in COVID-19 cases.
The governor expressed hope that there will be a continuous improvement that will be done on the provincial scholarship program, especially when there will be available funds, so that more students from the far flung communities will be able to be identified as recipients of the same assistance in the future since education is an important component of the success of individuals who want to be productive citizens in their own right. By HENT
