If Senate Bill (SB) 399 is passed, public school teachers and their children will be eligible for scholarship payments.
SB 399, introduced by Senator Francis Tolentino, would offer public school teachers scholarship funding to pursue master’s, PhD, or post-graduate studies relating to the subjects or courses they teach.
Scholarship awards under the proposed bill can be used in educational institutions run by the Philippine government or its political subdivisions.
Tolentino believes the proposed bill will encourage more instructors to work in public schools.
Furthermore, he said, “In turn, more teachers would educate our growing number of public school students, enabling a better quality of education to Filipinos and consequently resulting to more productive members of society.”
Tolentino stated that there were approximately 3.3 million full-time and part-time public school teachers for School Year 2017-2018, with 205,600 of them working in public charter schools, citing data from the National Center for Education Statistics.
Meanwhile, under the measure, qualifying public school teachers’ children will automatically get scholarship funds for elementary, secondary, and university education.
Tolentino said SB 399 is in line with the policy of the State to give priority to education, science and technology, arts, culture, and sports “to foster patriotism and nationalism, accelerate social progress, and promote total human liberation and development.”
