Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto spearheaded on Tuesday, May 31, the local school board meeting which tackled the programs that aim to boost the city’s education sector amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and beyond.
In his Twitter page, Sotto posted pictures of the meeting and said that some of the topics include the Summer Reading Camp for the month of July, the specialization course for the city's science and mathematics teachers, Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) capacity development, additional support for face-to-face learning, and the repairs and maintenance of the city schools.
The meeting also discussed the local government unit's partnership with private schools, including training for teachers.
Sotto added that for the city's scholarship program, existing pandemic scholars from the private schools will be renewed. However, all new applicants will have to pass through the regular process and criteria.
In April, Sotto reported his administration’s accomplishments in improving the education sector of the city amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
In his Facebook post, Sotto said that since 2019, the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Pasig (PLP) has been implementing Republic Act 10931 or UniFAST (Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education) which aims to provide students in the tertiary level with free tuition and other educational expenses.
The said law authored by Pasig City Representative Roman Romulo was passed in 2016.
PLP students also received gadgets from the local government for their distance learning and a connectivity allowance worth P500 per month.
Pasig also increased its scholars from 12,000 to 20,000 students even during the Covid-19 crisis.
Sotto said that they will further increase the number of scholars every year as long as it is within the income bracket.
Aside from the income bracket, Pasig also uses a ranking system based on the student’s grades to ensure that the scholarship will be fair to all and to prevent “palakasan”.
He added that the city also has slots for sports and arts and design scholars.
The city has also relaxed and streamlined its requirements for scholarship grants.
Sotto said that they have also named the scholarship program “Pasig City Scholarship Program” as a way of ending “patronage politics”.