By Christine Fabro
The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) said on Friday (Sept. 10) that the Academic Year 2021-2022 has successfully opened as one-third of the universities and colleges here began the semester in August, while the remaining will open in September and October.
In a public address, CHED Chairperson Prospero De Vera III reported the developments in Higher Education, including the increase in the number of enrollees between Academic Year 2019–2020 and 2020–2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
De Vera attributed this success to the Republic Act 10931 or the Free Higher Education Act, which allowed about 1.6 million students to study for free in over 200 public universities nationwide.
He added that some 435,000 students in public and private universities benefited from the Tertiary Education Subsidy.
“Naging lifeline ito sa panahon ng COVID kasi ang enrollment sa public universities has not declined during COVID dahil libre ang tuition at iyong 40,000 na nakukuha nila ay naging ayuda na pang-buhay ng kanilang pamilya ngayong panahon ng COVID,” De Vera said.
“So kung hindi po napirmahan ‘yung RA 10931, mas grabe ang magiging epekto sa panahon ng COVID. Madaming hindi makakapag-aral dahil walang pang-tuition at walang pangtustos. So kasama pa dito ang 210,000 na Tulong Dunong beneficiaries,” he added.
CHED also subsidizes about 91,000 additional students in public and private universities through merit scholarships.
Under the Bayanihan 2, CHED has also disbursed a total of P300 million to aid some 60,000 private school students in their education debt.
“Dahil sa Bayanihan 2, binigyan ang CHED ng P300 million para bawasan ng tig-li-limang libo ‘yung utang ng mga estudyante sa private schools. At natulungan natin ang 60,000 na mga estudyante for this year in 2020,” De Vera said.
Limited face-to-face classes
To date, the CHED has already inspected and authorized 118 schools to hold limited face-to-face classes covering about 247 programs.
This covers around 13,000 third year and fourth year students from Medicine, Nursing, Physical Therapy, Midwifery, MedTech, Speech Language, Dentistry, and Radiologic Technology programs.
Of this, some 10,000 students and more than 1,000 faculty members are COVID-19-vaccinated.
The inoculation program resulted in 0.3% infection rate in students, while 1.4% infection level in faculty members.
De Vera said that the CHED has already endorsed to the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) its recommendation to expand the limited face-to-face classes to Engineering, Hotel and Restaurant Management, and Maritime programs. –rir
