Twenty private higher education institutions (HEIs) remain to be non-compliant in their billing requirements which causes delay on the processing and disbursement of the Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) stipends to at least 500 grantees for Academic Year 2019-2020, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) said.
"The CHED and UniFAST (Unified Student Financial Assistance System on Tertiary Education) staff have been reminding these HEIs to immediately comply with their billing submission requirements so their student-grantees can immediately receive the subsidy due in their last academic year especially now that classes for AY 2020-2021 have started," CHED chairman J. Prospero De Vera III said in a statement on Thursday.
According to De Vera, the Private Education Assistance Committee (PEAC) already reached out to these schools to follow up on their submissions. He said some are in a rush to comply but most of them were unavailable to answer calls.
PEAC was the committee assigned to process the TES billings of private HEIs then endorsed the billing claims to CHED and UniFAST for payment.
"While CHED recognizes that the quarantine imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic may have delayed the submission by these private HEIs, nine months have passed and these HEIs still have not complied. The TES Management System Portal was opened in January for these HEIs to submit their TES billing documents," De Vera, who is also UniFAST Board chairman, pointed out.
"Their students continue to suffer from their inaction. The Commission will now look into how these HEIs can be penalized for not following their responsibilities in the Memorandum of Agreement they signed with CHED," he warned.
The private colleges and universities that still have no billing submissions for the release of TES stipends as of Thursday are La Finn's Scholastica in Region 1; Annunciation College of Bacon Sorsogon Unit, and Catanduanes Colleges in Region 5; Mary's Children Formation College, and Saint Paul College Foundation, Inc. in Region 7; Asia Harvesters College and Seminary, Centro Escolar Las Piñas, Inc., Global Reciprocal Colleges, Immaculate Heart of Mary College-Parañaque, Informatics College-Manila, Interface Computer College-Manila, Jesus Reigns Christian College Foundation, NAMEI Polytechnic Institute, Olivarez College, Perpetual Help College of Manila, PMI Colleges-Manila, PNTC Colleges-Manila, San Sebastian College-Recoletos, STI College-Recto, and Wesleyan College of Manila in the National Capital Region.
The higher education chief said a total of 253,585 continuing and new TES beneficiaries from 1,247 private HEIs nationwide have already been validated to receive the TES grant for the previous academic year.
To date, De Vera said the UniFAST has processed 91 percent of the billing claims endorsed by PEAC for 234,436 grantees in 943 private HEIs.
The 20 non-compliant schools, the CHED chief added, are part of the remaining 9 percent that consists mostly of billing claims yet to be endorsed by PEAC to UniFAST from 304 private HEIs with a total of more than 15,000 grantees.
Under the CHED's TES program, eligible students enrolled in private schools will receive a P60,000 stipend per academic year if they belong to the Department of Social Welfare and Development's Listahanan 2.0 or they reside and study in private HEIs in cities and municipalities where there is no existing public university or college.
CHED said the TES benefit covers payment for the grantees' tuition and education-related expenses.