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Central Government, Education

The Philippines hands out cash for education

By Alice Kok | 12 January 2009

Esperanza I Cabral, Social Welfare and Development Secretary, The Philippines, announced that more than 6500 families will have a brighter year this 2009 as they receive cash grants from the 4Ps (Pantawid para sa Pamilyang Pilipino) project of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

The 4Ps programme offers cash grant for five years of US$126 a year or US$10 a month for every household for health and nutritional expenses, and three years of US$63 for one school year or 10 months, or US$6 a month for every child’s educational expenses.

The programme covers a maximum of three children for every household, Cabral said. “This means a household with three qualified children could have a subsidy of US$30 a month or US$315 annually as long as they comply with the requirements.”

An initial US$232,058 has been distributed by the DSWD to cover the last three months of 2008. Under the 4Ps project, needy families are given cash grants by the government to reduce poverty and hunger incidence, provide primary education, reduce child mortality, and to improve maternal health and promote gender equality, explains Cabral.

“The programme gives parents an incentive to accomplish their parental roles and responsibilities as the project provides money directly only on the condition that the grantees send their children to school and take them for health checks regularly,” Cabral says.

Non-compliance with the rules of the programme will result to suspension of the cash grants or dropping of the programme, she added.

The selection of municipalities covered by the program was based on the listing of poorest provinces nationwide according to the Family Income and Expenditures Survey (FIES) and labour survey while the selection of the poorest town is based on Small Area Estimates (SEA).

“This project which started middle of 2008 will be implemented for five years and will end by 2013,” she said. “Aside from these seven towns in the province of Negros Oriental, another 10 barangays in Cebu City will also be piloted in this project for the highly urbanised area,” Cabral added.

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