Batch of student grantees under the Expanded Students Grant-In aid program for Poverty Alleviation (ESGPPA) have already graduated in college, school authorities confirmed.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development Field Office IX recognized the Two Hundred Eighteen graduates of the ESGPPA in Zamboanga Peninsula who have dedicated their efforts to finish the tertiary level education.
The graduates who are also Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program partner-beneficiaries will soon become instruments in assisting their families to alleviate its social and economic conditions through engaging in the employment opportunities that await them.
The Student Grants-in-aid Program for Poverty Alleviation (ESGP-PA) is a government program that aims to contribute to the National Government’s thrusts in effectively addressing poverty alleviation by increasing the number of graduates in higher education among indigent households and to get these graduates employed in high-value added occupations in order to lift their families out of poverty and to contribute to national development.
Strengthening this goal, as a long term instrument and commitment to break the vicious poverty cycle afflicting the poor but deserving students, a creation of partnership under Joint Memorandum Circular No.2014-1 among different government agencies like Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), and Philippine Association of State Colleges and Universities (PASUC) was made.
The recipients were comprised of the different State Colleges and Universities who have partnered the agencies involved in the implementation of the program. The graduates came from the following schools: Western Mindanao State University- Main/ESU campus (106 graduates); Jose Rizal Memorial State University (34 graduates); JH Cerilles State College (10 graduates); Zamboanga City State Polytechnic College (39 graduates) and Zamboanga City State of Marine Sciences and Technology (29 graduates).
Among them, the top Bachelor degree courses were: Education, Computer Science and Agriculture.
To date, the program currently covers 2,078 grantees enrolled in the partner SUCs around the region which are entitled to a maximum of Thirty Thousand Pesos per semester. The grant is intended to cover the costs for tuition and other school fees, academic and extracurricular expenses, purchase of text books, board and lodging, transportation, clothing, admission/entrance fees, health and other valid related education expenses and support services to complete the student-grantee’s degree program. ##