SENATOR Grace Poe filed a measure that aims to establish a unified system of extending financial support to the Filipino youth.

In Senate Bill 1071, Poe wants to establish the National Scholarship Commission which will be tasked to process scholarship grants, student loan programs, subsidies and bursaries among others.

Citing the 2017 Philippine Statistics Authority report in her explanatory note, she said about nine percent of the estimated 39.2 million Filipinos ages 6 to 24 were out of school children and youth.

The report also revealed that the most common reasons among OSCY for not attending school were marriage or family matters, high cost of education or financial concerns, and lack of personal interest.

“It bears stressing that half of the 3.6 million OSCY are members of families whose income fall at the bottom 30% on their per capita income. Ever since, formal education has taken the backseat for our countrymen with insufficient and or/ low income,” Poe said in her explanatory note.

She added that formal education has not been considered as a priority or necessity for less fortunate families.

The bill aims to bring available, existing and free education to OSCY and other qualified individuals in an attempt to slowly significantly bring down the number of OSCY and take them out of the cycle of poverty.

Under the measure, the National Scholarship Commission will generate, safe-keep and update comprehensive database of OSCY; identify and pinpoint the reasons that keep them out of schools and formal education and reach out to them to bring them back to education.