STUDENTS who qualified in the country’s premier and prestigious science scholarship brand recently signed contracts as a term of their obligation to the country.
Dr. Alexander Madrigal, Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Calabarzon director, reminded the youth about their responsibilities as S&T scholars. He encouraged them to serve their own country first, recounting the extremely high count of Filipino scientists who choose career breaks abroad over opportunities in the country.
Science Education Institute (SEI) of the DOST said, “This year’s qualifiers breached the 3,982 mark of last year’s passers, up by 33 percent, a record for the scholarship program established in 1958.”
SEI said out of the total number of passers, 4,475 qualified as scholars under the Republic Act (RA) 7687 Scholarship Program, scholarships for gifted students who belong to economically disadvantaged families; while 828 passed under the DOST-SEI Merit Scholarship Program.
Madrigal also said the DOST is trying its best to provide the utmost comfort guaranteed by scholarship benefits that will be fully enjoyed by the scholars.
In the recent adjustments created by DOST-SEI, “Scholars are set to receive bigger stipends and other allowances starting school year 2015-2016.”
All DOST-SEI scholars will receive P6,000 monthly stipend (from P5,000) under the Physics/Applied Physics, Geology, Mining Engineering, Agriculture and Fisheries courses.
Scholars under the other DOST-SEI priority courses will receive P5,000 monthly stipend (from P4,000); book allowance of P10,000 per academic year (from P5,000); tuition subsidy of P10,000 (from P8,000); and MS/PE clothing allowance of P1,000 (from P500).”
DOST Calabarzon contributed big figures to the national passers’ count with a total of 139 students for the Merit Scholarship Program and 665 for the RA 7687 Scholarship Program, an aggregate of 804 bright students who composed 15 percent of the “passers’ pie.” The Southern-Tagalog region retains the No. 1 spot as the region with the highest head count of qualifiers.
In 2014, 573 from Calabarzon qualified, more than National Capital Region’s (NCR) 456 qualifiers. This year NCR has 696 passers.
Juan Carlo M. Manas/S&T Media Service
