By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz
The House Committee on Higher and Technical Education has recently approved a measure granting discount on books and school supplies to underprivileged students.
Liberal Party Rep. Roman T. Romulo, the committee chair, said the passage of the House Bill 5902 would ease the financial burden of underprivileged students and help them cope with the high cost of education.
The HB 5902 or the “Underprivileged Higher and Technical Students’ Discounts Act” grants five percent discount to students in buying books, school supplies, food and medicine.
The bill will cover the students who are enrolled in post-secondary non-degree technical-vocational courses and those enrolled in Bachelor’s Degree Programs at the college level, post secondary non-degree technical-vocational course.
The measure will also cover the student-beneficiaries of the Conditional Cash Transfer or Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) and other poverty reduction programs of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
Students with part-time jobs whose income combined with the annual gross income of their parents do not exceed P300,000 are also covered by the proposed law.
The measure, however, provides that the discounts to students shall be discontinued if the student fails for one semester in the majority of the academic subjects enrolled in, if the student fails to finish the short-term non-degree course enrolled in, and if the student stops schooling.
It added that a student may also be disqualified if he or she is convicted of any crime, unless such failure is due to some valid cause beyond the student’s control, as determined by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) or the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).
The measure mandates the CHED and TESDA to screen and monitor the qualified beneficiaries, issue identification cards to qualified beneficiaries, and to cancel the same if they fail to comply with the requirements under the proposed measure.