Rep. Angelo B. Palmones, S&T House Committee vice chair and Agham Party-list representative, recently led deliberation of House Bill No. 3676 which seeks to expand the offerings of the DOST-SEI Undergraduate S&T program or RA 7687. Under the bill, he proposes increasing the number of scholarship slots being offered by the program.
Palmones explains that the current program provisions need to be amended to address the following: the Philippines lags in terms of trained personnel in S&T for developing countries. There are only 165 S&T personnel available to provide S&T services for every million of Filipinos. The United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recommends 380 per million population.
Palmones added the bill includes removal of the provision in the law which only allows the top five percent of the graduating class to take the S&T scholarship qualifying exam. The new bill considers instead the grades of the students, specifically on math and science, as qualifying factors.
In addition, Palmones is proposing to measure the increase in scholarship fund allocation to the rate of inflation and the prevailing cost of education at the time the science agency’s scholarship budget is being deliberated. The augmented scholarship fund is proposed to be sourced from the Philippine Amusements and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR).
In response, Dr. Leticia V. Catris, Officer-in-Charge of DOST-SEI, welcomed the developments. She expressed optimism that the bill will be a great help in ensuring the continued creation of a critical mass of scientists and engineers in the country. (DOST IV-A/MICRobles/AMGuevarra)
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