The Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2) voiced profound concern over CHED’s implementation of the Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) program, which shows that many SHS graduates from Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) families have not been able to benefit from the Tertiary Education Subsidy.
The assessment was shared during the joint hearing of the House Committees on Basic and Higher Education.
Republic Act 10931 established the Tertiary Education Subsidy to provide financial support to underprivileged Filipino students pursuing higher education. While the law intended to support the poorest, the TES system saw a growing number of recipients from the PNSL category (those studying in private institutions in areas without public colleges).
The proportion of poorest of the poor beneficiaries under the TES program saw a significant decline, from 75% in 2018 to just 23% in 2023. In contrast, the percentage of TES grantees from the PNSL category rose from 26% in 2018 to 69% in 2022.
EDCOM 2 pushed for a special provision in the 2024 national budget to ensure that the TES program would explicitly prioritize the poorest students. This intervention resulted in a significant increase in the share of TES grantees from the poorest households, reaching 27% for the 2023-2024 academic year.
“We call on CHED to prioritize the poorest of the poor, and to work closely with DSWD and DepEd in reaching out to 4Ps graduates.”
“We call on CHED to prioritize the poorest of the poor, and to work closely with DSWD and DepEd in reaching out to 4Ps graduates,” said EDCOM 2 Executive Director, Dr. Karol Mark Yee. “Studies show that interventions like TES are most effective when they are guaranteed eligibility to the program as early as high school, conditional on the successful completion of Grade 12, and acceptance to a CHED-recognized higher education institution.”
EDCOM 2 Commissioners Representative Roman Romulo, Senator Bam Aquino, and Senator Loren Legarda have filed bills in both the House and the Senate seeking to rectify the issue and clarify the targeting for the subsidy. The proposed amendments will ensure that the poorest who are able to finish high school are guaranteed slots in the government’s TES program. This would support more than 500,000 students from 4Ps families in actually pursuing a college education.
Another concern identified by EDCOM 2 is the drastic reduction in subsidies for TES beneficiaries.
“There used to be P60,000 [subsidy], honorable members. Now it’s P13,000. So, with that P60,000 we had a high attrition rate – so now with that P13,000 I would assume that we would have a higher attrition rate. So, maybe you should make adjustments to your budget uh to increase the amount of subsidy per student,” EDCOM 2 Commissioner Representative Steve Solon said.
Similarly, beneficiaries in State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) and Local Universities and Colleges (LUCs) in areas without SUCs or LUCs have seen their subsidy drop from 20,000 pesos to 10,000 pesos per semester. This reduction in financial aid is considered a major factor contributing to the high attrition rate among college students. Furthermore, the alarming 38.2% unemployment rate among college graduates also points to broader issues in the higher education system.
EDCOM 2 also raised concerns regarding disbursement mechanisms and “other fees” that continue to pose barriers to students. Despite tuition often being free in SUCs and LUCs, many institutions still collect various “other fees,” such as those for related learning experiences in nursing, which can sometimes exceed the tuition fee itself.
“Ang mahal doon, ‘yung mga costs nila…After they’ve enroled they are required by schools – whether SUCs or LUCs – to pay for other fees and costs…And we know that the fee there is even higher, sometimes, than the tuition fee itself,” EDCOM 2 Co-Chair Representative Roman Romulo pointed out.
Yee also noted that while students from low-income families might aspire to college, the current TES subsidy amount effectively limits their options, making teacher education the only financially viable course because its tuition fee is the only one the subsidy can cover. This raises questions about the intention of the policy and the genuine choice students have in pursuing their desired courses.
“The only program that they can actually apply for using the TES subsidy now is teacher education.”
“The only program that they can actually apply for using the TES subsidy now is teacher education. So sinasabi natin mahirap ka, pwede kang pangarap at mag-college pero teacher lang ang pwede mong bayaran na tuition fee kasi ‘yun lang ‘yung kayang bayaran ng subsidy natin,” he said.
Yee also highlighted the unfulfilled responsibilities of the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education (UNIFAST) and called for its full functionality.
“The function of UNIFAST is very clear in terms of formulating the mechanisms and policies to identify beneficiaries, to check for impact of its programs, to do all of the assessments required, to do tracer studies,” he said.
The UNIFAST is a Philippine government body and attached agency of CHED that administers various Student Financial Assistance Programs (StuFAPs) to ensure access to quality tertiary education for Filipino students.
“Based on the findings of EDCOM, many of its responsibilities under RA 10607 remain unfulfilled and pending 10 years after its legislation. And so we are really calling on CHED and UNIFAST to be able to prioritize all of this because this is actually the mechanism that will allow us…to resolve these concerns that have cropped up in the past decade. There are mechanisms, there is a law for it. It just needs to be implemented and so hopefully under the new leadership we will see progress in terms of the UNIFAST,” Yee concluded.
