The COMMISSION on Higher Education has started the releases of additional Tertiary Education Subsidy stipends to 292,438 grantees in both public and private higher education institutions (HEIs) for academic year 2019-2020.

The new releases were due to the downloading recently of some P6 billion by the Department of Budget and Management to the CHED.

The grantees who will receive the TES are 3,529 Expanded Students’ Grants-in-Aid Program for Poverty Alleviation beneficiaries (1st semester); 44,224 new grantees in public HEIs (1st semester); 97,173 continuing private higher education institutions grantees (1st semester) and part of 2nd semester); and 147,512 continuing Tulong-Dunong Program beneficiaries (1st and 2nd semesters).

The qualified grantees that will receive TES stipends are from the state universities and colleges, local universities and colleges, and the private HEIs that have reportedly complied with the necessary CHED requirements and the UniFAST Secretariat.

Last March, TES stipends were initially released to 23,319 continuing grantees in 51 SUCs and LUCs that have reportedly completed their submission of liquidation requirements for the first semester of the academic year 2019-2020.

It was followed by 404 private higher education institutions nationwide that disbursed the subsidy to 120,798 grantees and another batch of TES stipend was released to some 105 public higher education institutions benefitting at least 62,671 students.

“The Commission is releasing the additional TES stipends as soon as the money is downloaded to us by DBM because we know that the students need this badly during the pandemic. I am instructing all public and private higher education institutions to fast track the distribution of the TES to their students so they can use this for paying their existing school fees and attend classes through flexible learning in August 2020,” Prospero De Vera III, CHED chair said in a statement.

The TES is a government grants-in-aid program made possible through Republic Act 10931 that gives P60,000 per school year to financially needy students in private schools and those studying in private schools in municipalities and cities without public universities.

The grants-in-aid program is used by students to pay their tuition and miscellaneous fees and other education expenses. It is the flagship social development program of the Duterte administration on higher education.