Kidapawan grants P400 educational subsidy for public school students

CITY (MindaNews) -- The City Council on Thursday passed the Parents-Teachers Association Subsidy Ordinance granting educational subsidy of 400 pesos for elementary and high school students in all public schools in the city every school year.

Councilor Aljo Cris ‘Pipoy’ Dizon, chair of Sangguniang Panlungsod

Committee on Education, Culture, and the Arts, said of the amount, P300 will come from the Special Education Fund (SEF) which is taken from the collection of real property taxes, and the remaining 100 pesos from the general fund.

The educational subsidy is one of the priority programs of Mayor Joseph Evangelista, which he implemented in 2016.

“So to institutionalize this program, I authored the ordinance which will mandate the government to allot funds for the educational subsidy of our students in public schools. This means that even after Mayor Evangelista leaves his office in 2022, the next mayor will be mandated to implement the same,” he said.

The amount for subsidy might be increased, “depending on the needs and the capability of the city government,” Dizon explained.

Next year, Dizon said they project a reduction of collections from payments of real property taxes since the mayor issued an Executive Order for a 20 percent reduction of these taxes.

“But even then, the educational subsidy must be pushed through because this is already an ordinance,” he said.

With 38,000 students from public elementary and high schools, the city government is set to pay educational subsidy of P15.2 M, where P11.4 million would come from the SEF, for school year 2020-2021.

Along with the subsidy, the city government also mandates all governmentrun schools to implement the zero collection policy during enrollment.

Dizon said students must not be deprived of their right to education just because they have no money to pay for the enrollment. (Malu Cadelina Manar / MindaNews)