Duterte signs laws granting medical scholarships, institutionalizing ALS in basic education

By Prince Golez

President Rodrigo Duterte signed a law establishing a medical scholarship and return service program for deserving students.

Republic Act No. (RA) 11509 or the “Doktor Para sa Bayan Act” grants scholarships to students aspiring to become physicians.

Under the law, a medical scholarship and return service (MSRS) program will be provided to deserving students in state universities and colleges or in private higher education institutions from regions which do not offer a medical course.

The following are forms of assistance to qualified medical students:

*free tuition and other school fees

*allowance for prescribed books, supplies and equipment

*clothing or uniform allowance

*allowance for dormitory or boarding house accommodation

*transportation allowance

*internship fees, including financial assistance during mandatory internship

*medical board review fees

*licensure fees

*annual medical insurance; and

*other education-related miscellaneous subsistence or living allowances

The applicant must be a Filipino citizen residing in the Philippines; a graduate or graduating student of a prerequisite course for a doctor of medicine degree; must have passed the entrance examination and complied with other requirements in the state or private college or university where he or she intends to enroll; and must have obtained a national medical admission test score mandated by the Commission on Higher Education and the cut-off required by the state or private school where he or she intends to enroll in.

RA 11509 requires the scholar to serve in a government public health office, government hospital, or any accredited government health facility in his or her town for at least one year for every scholarship year availed of.

Meanwhile, Duterte also signed into law RA 11510 institutionalizing the Alternative Learning System in the country’s basic education for out-of-school children in special cases and adults.

The Alternative Learning System Act aims to provide them with opportunities to improve their knowledge, values, life skills, and readiness for higher education, work or self-employment through a system of non-formal or indigenous education.

Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)