BACOLOR, Pampanga (PIA) -- Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and higher education institutions (HEIs) in Central Luzon committed to ensure that education continues amid the pandemic. 

In a press conference, CHED Chairperson J. Prospero De Vera III said HEIs are doing all they can to lessen the burden among students, especially with the additional cost for gadget and internet usage, due to online learning. 

“Different universities have different interventions, depending on the availability of their resources. Some state universities and colleges (SUCs) bought laptops for their teachers and tablets for their student,” De Vera said. 

The chairperson also assured that the SUCs’ Board of Regents are very much willing to respond to the needs and concerns of the students, as long as these are brought to the attention of the school administrators. 

“In our situation, dialogue is important. The openness and willingness to find out what is the problem is important. I think the most important is that student regents represented in the board should speak out and tell the board what is the concerns of the students so these can be acted upon,” he said. 

De Vera added that one way for HEIs to aid students is by being flexible not only in their curriculum, but also flexibility in the mind of the administrators to be more accommodating and to make adjustments in favor of the students’ welfare. 

He said that the Commission is also lobbying for bigger budget to expand their coverage and increase Tertiary Education Subsidy beneficiaries. 

For his part, Don Honorio Ventura State University President Enrique Baking said they are responding quickly to all the concerns of the students during this pandemic, especially that many of them are poor. 

As part of this aid, Baking said they already obtained authority from the Department of Budget and Management to use the P500,000 given to them by the Office of Senator Joel Villanueva for the procurement of tablets for their students. 

He added that they are utilizing the university’s savings to provide internet assistance to their indigent students. 

“On the side of academic instruction, I’ve already instructed my vice presidents including the deans of the different colleges to relax a little bit on the policies without necessarily compromising quality. We will continue to help students and when we have savings, we will align this to fund student assistance and development initiatives,” he said. 

Baking added that aside from financial support, DHVSU also provides online student counseling and online telemedicine, especially for the depressed students, which started in May 2020.

He then stressed that the university officials  are ready to serve and extend services by tapping all readily available resources of the university just to respond very quickly to their students’ needs. (CLJD/MJSC-PIA 3)