DAVAO CITY, Philippines – This city has increased its scholarship slots to the deserving poor students and the city mayor urged them to maximize the scholarship assistance extended by the city.
“I encourage our young generation to maximize the current offerings and study hard until each of you have achieved your goals,” Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said in her State of the City Address on Tuesday.
Duterte said the city has increased its slot by 51.94 percent increase under the Educational Benefit System Unit(EBSU) on a year on year comparison. From the 1,059 scholars of school year 2017-2018, EBSU is now managing 1,609 scholars.
“By providing them with the basic school needs, we are encouraging them to do well in school so that when they achieve success, they can give back to the communities they come from,” Duterte-Carpio said.
Under this program, Duterte presented during her speech at the City Council the first graduate of a medical course coming from the indigenous community.
As of October 2, she said the city government has reached out to 39 different schools in the city and to 14,000 school children.
Aside from the number of slots, she said the scholarship platform has added athletics scholarship program.
“The way out of poverty is education,” she said.
“To develop more world class and competitive athletes, we will come up [with] a scholarship program for student-athletes under the EBSU to ensure that our talents get the necessary support and training,” Duterte-Carpio said.
To back up quality education, Duterte said the city has improved some infrastructure, such as the City Library. A new building is currently being constructed at C.Bangoy St. Another facility, the Disaster Education Mobile Library, is also being operated. Danielle Fanlo,AdDU intern