‘264 private schools have yet to submit requirements, delay release of stipends’

THE Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) said some 264 private schools had yet to submit their billing requirements to the Private Education Assistance Committee (PEAC), resulting in delay of stipend distribution under the Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) Program.

“We have been getting a lot of inquiries and complaints from our communication channels and social media platforms on the delays of the TES benefit distribution. We understand these frustrations and we recognize the situation of some of our students and their families during this Covid-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic,” CHEd Chairman J. Prospero

de Vera 3rd said in a statement.

The delay in the processing and disbursing of TES stipends would affect some 6,628 qualified student- grantees.

Under the program, eligible students enrolled in private higher education institutions (HEIs) will receive P60,000 per academic year if they belong to the Listahanan 2.0 of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, or they reside and study in private HEIs in cities and municipalities where there is no public university.

The TES benefit is used by students to pay for their tuition, miscellaneous fees and other school expenses.

The CHEd and the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education (UniFAST) reminded the 264 private schools to immediately comply with the requirements.

On May 15, de Vera said a total of 120,798 grantees from 404 private HEIs nationwide already received their TES for the first semester of academic year 2019-2020.

The private schools that have received the TES stipends were those billings that have already been processed and endorsed by the Private Education Assistance Committee to the UniFAST Secretariat and CHEd.