Students may borrow up to P30,000

Students may soon avail themselves of loans from the government of as much as P30,000 per year to finance their education and pay for it later.

The Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) is increasing its funding for student loans to P4 billion from P215 million.

The funds could be availed of as early as the second semester of the current school year which begins in November. The student loan program's bank is the Land Bank of the Philippines which has committed itself to providing some P1 billion in funding, Puno said.

"We don't want the qualification standards to be really strict because this is not a scholarship program but a financial aid program. The student loans can be partly operable by the second semester this year and will be fully implemented by 2008," Puno said.

While CHEd is able to lend some 38,000 students only about P5,000 each per semester with the previous amount, it would now be able to provide about P30,000 per year (or P15,000 per semester) to each of almost 200,000 student beneficiaries.

CHEd is finalizing the mechanics of the loan program in time for the start of the second semester.

The funds would most likely be coursed through school cooperatives by Landbank to make it easier for the students to access the money.

"The Landbank and CHEd want to use the relationship we have established with the cooperatives so this program could reach its intended beneficiaries," said CHEd.