CHED pushes dormitories for 4Ps students in state universities and colleges

The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) on Thursday pushed for the construction of dormitory units in higher education institutions (HEIs) for the poorest students to boost graduation rates among the marginalized.

“While we give free higher education to our 4Ps (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program) along with different subsidies… We are aware that the reason for the high attrition rate and one of their bottlenecks is paying for their dormitories and accommodations,” CHED Chairperson Shirley C. Agrupis said in Filipino during the House Appropriations Committee budget hearing.

“We are now preparing one dormitory to be built by SUC (state university and college) to house these students, which now range from 10,000 and above to as high as 62,000 students per SUC,” she added.

In partnership with the Pag-IBIG Fund, the proposed student housing, or Building Access to Learning for Students (BALAY), is initially budgeted at P100 million to P120 million per unit per SUC.

“We have partnered with Pag-IBIG to empower the SUCs because it is hard,” she said. “Right now, the infrastructure budget for SUCs is at almost zero. If we maintain that, we won’t be able to build dormitories that’s why we partnered with Pag-IBIG.”

The proposed design features three sizes, depending on the educational institution’s capacity and land availability. Small BALAY houses 20 to 30 rooms, while medium-sized housing has 50 to 80 rooms.

For the biggest unit, the large BALAY, the housing will span a three- to five-story building.

“It will be cascaded to the state universities and colleges to determine their payment capacity,” the CHED chief said.

The government was also urged to complement the proposal by building another unit to complement the housing to be built and paid for by SUCs.

“It is our aspiration and dream that the government will enter into the same agreement with Pag-IBIG, and in a given year, we can build two units of dormitory,” Ms. Agrupis said. “We can dedicate that to our 4Ps to increase the graduation rate.”

Data from the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2) showed that the poorest-of-the-poor beneficiaries under the Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) dropped from 70.73% in 2018 to 22.89% in 2022.

In Academic Year 2024-2025, only 1.23%, or 4,746 4Ps senior high school completers, could access TES as first-year beneficiaries. — Almira Louise S. Martinez