CHED calls on schools to accept Marawi’s displaced students
The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) has called on all colleges and universities to accept students displaced by the Marawi conflict even if they do not have complete school records.
CHED Commissioner Prospero de Vera III said this was the same strategy employed to accommodate students affected by the onslaught of super-typhoon “Yolanda” a few years ago.
A formal advisory to the colleges and universities will be issued by CHED in the next few days, according to De Vera.
“CHED will be issuing in the next couple of days an advisory to all universities to immediately accept students coming from Marawi-affected areas if they want to transfer,” De Vera said in a Palace press briefing.
He said the schools should “immediately accept them in light of the problem that we are encountering in Marawi, so that the records can come later.”
“It’s just to facilitate things, so that the victims will not have problems transferring to other schools,” he added.
Thousands of families have been displaced from their houses due to the fighting between government forces and Islamic State-linked extremists in Marawi City. The government plans to embark on a 110-billon rehabilitation plan once the Marawi City has been cleared of the militants.
CHED expressed readiness to issue a directive asking higher education institutions (HEIs) nationwide to temporarily waive documentary requirements and accept displaced students who fled war-torn Marawi who wish to enroll in their respective institutions.
CHED Chairperson Patricia Licuanan said that the Commission continues to monitor the status of HEIs might be affected by the Marawi clash. “I don’t have a thorough report yet [but] we are collecting from various HEIs there,” she said.
Licuanan said that the CHED main office is in constant communication with the Mindanao State University (MSU) main campus in Marawi City and with the MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT).
“First of all, they are trying to reduce all academics activities,” Licuanan said. “In a way, it’s fortunate that it’s summer because they changed their school opening, they’ve moved a lot of their operations to the Iligan campus [MSU-IIT],” she said. Based on school calendar for academic year 2016-2017 posted on its website, the pre-enrollment in MSU Marawi starts on the second week of July while classes officially start in August.
De Vera, however, could not yet provide the number of Marawi students who will transfer to other colleges and universities. He said they have received so far queries from some Marawi evacuees about the education of their children.
Licuanan said that just the like the Department of Education (DepEd), CHED is also willing to issue a directive to HEIs asking them to assist and accommodate displaced students should they choose to transfer to their respective institutions.