Question & AnswerQ&A (PRESIDENTIAL DECREE NO. 932)
The official title is "Educational Assistance Act of 1976."
The main purpose is to democratize educational opportunities by promoting the "Study Now Pay Later Plan" and specifying schemes for its implementation to assist poor but deserving students in pursuing higher education.
It is an educational assistance program that provides financial loans to poor but deserving students to support their education, which they will repay after employment.
The Social Security System (SSS) and Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), Philippine National Bank (PNB), Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), Land Bank, all private banking institutions, and the Amanah Bank are required to set up such funds.
An initial amount of fifty million pesos (P50,000,000.00) was allocated, with SSS and GSIS each contributing twenty-five million pesos (P25,000,000.00).
The funds are to be used to service the financial needs of eligible students for tuition, school fees, board and lodging, pocket money, books and supplies, and other miscellaneous educational expenses.
It is a fund to guarantee student loans under the program, initially appropriated with one million pesos (P1,000,000.00) from the National Treasury.
The Educational Loan Guarantee Fund is administered by the Educational Assistance Policy Council created under the decree.
The Council determines policies, measures, rules, and regulations necessary to implement and maintain the loan program, issues guidelines for educational assistance programs, enlists cooperation of schools and institutions, and performs other duties assigned by the President.
The Council is composed of the Secretary of Education and Culture (Chairman), Secretary of Labor (Vice-Chairman), Director-General of NEDA, Secretary of Finance, Secretary of Social Welfare, Budget Commissioner, Presidential Assistant on Youth and Sports Development, Governor of the Central Bank, Administrator of SSS, and General Manager of GSIS or their alternates.
The applicant must be a Filipino citizen who graduated from a duly authorized secondary school, public or private, and must be poor but deserving as determined by the Council.
Loan payments shall be made immediately upon employment through a payroll check-off system established by the Council.
The Student Loan Fund Authority created under RA 6014 is abolished by this decree.
It took effect immediately upon publication of its implementing rules and regulations in two newspapers of general circulation in the Philippines.