The city council passed Ordinance 7, s. 2022 that institutionalized the Gawad Lingap Program for public elementary and secondary school students.
The ordinance aims to make education accessible and affordable so that no student will be forced to drop out of school due to financial constraints.
Students enrolled in any public elementary and secondary institution may avail of the assistance upon meeting the qualifications.
To qualify, students must be enrolled for the ensuing school year in any public school in the city; must belong to indigent families; must not have an existing stipend or scholarship grant from any agency, company, or individual regardless of the amount being received; must not have intention to enroll in schools outside the city; and the joint annual income of parents must not exceed P150,000.
Qualified students must not incur five percent absences of the total number of school days; must have passing remarks in all subjects in every grading period; and must be actively involved in all curricular and co-curricular activities of the Department of Education and the local government.
Those who wish to transfer schools to other divisions will be automatically removed from the list of beneficiaries.
To effectively implement the ordinance, especially on the screening and awarding of financial assistance to eligible students, the Gawad Lingap Committee will be created to be composed of the city mayor as chairperson and City Schools Division superintendent as co-chairperson.
The members are School Governance and Operations Division-Chief Education Supervisor, School Governance and Operations Division-Education Program Supervisor, Local Youth Division officer; and President of Federation of Parents-Teachers Association of Baguio City. The Youth Formation officer of the DepEd will serve as secretariat.
The ordinance proposed the appropriation of at least P2 million annually to be included in the budget earmarked to the City Schools Division Office.
The annual budget provided for the said program may be increased upon the recommendation of the City Schools Division Office through the Gawad Lingap committee. – PIO release
April 20, 2024
