Free tuition in Tesda centers on first working day of 2018—DBM chief

Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno. FILE PHOTO

Technical-vocational students in Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda)-run institutions will enjoy free tuition as early as the first working day of 2018, Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said Wednesday.

During the meeting of the Department of Budget and Management with Tesda, the Commission on Higher Education and UniFAST Wednesday morning, Diokno said “we agreed on most major issues” regarding Republic Act No. 10931 or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act.

“The law will be implemented next school year, except Tesda which will implement it starting the first working day of 2018,” Diokno disclosed in a text message.

The Budget chief said they created a technical working group that will finalize the draft implementing rules and regulations of RA 10931. The guidelines will be issued by mid-September, he said.

As for the source of financing for the free tuition perk, Diokno said it “will be coordinated with the House appropriations committee and the Senate finance committee.”

Last week, Diokno said the sources of financing will follow the funding needs of the law, which will be defined by the number of beneficiaries.

“Many numbers are being floated around—for example, 900,000; 1.7 million; or 2.5 million. Hence, we have yet to agree on the total costs of the quality, free tuition for tertiary education program and how it will be funded,” Diokno said.

As such, Diokno had said “there will be changes in the President’s 2018 budget, which has some P16 billion in various types of scholarships.”

During the first congressional hearing on the proposed P3.767-trillion national budget for 2018, economic managers said a whopping P100 billion would be needed to fully subsidize tuition in SUCs.

Instead of free tuition in SUCs, the Duterte administration’s economic team had been pushing for the implementation of a 2014 law that unified and harmonized all financial assistance for students.

Economic managers had said the government must fully implement the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education or UniFAST under RA 10687. JE