By John Clifford Lintao
WITH criteria in place, some 424 recipients of the Commission on Higher Education’s (CHED) Merit Scholarship Program (CMSP) could lose their scholarships, unless colleges and universities give numerical grades for the second semester of the previous academic year.
CHED also called on the 17 higher educational institutions (HEIs) that supposedly implemented a “pass-all” policy last semester to provide these scholars numerical grades.
In a statement issued by CHED chair Prospero De Vera, he said CMSP is granted to students based solely on their scholastic performance. With a system and criteria in place, the CHED scholars are required to maintain a general weighted average of at least 85 percent or its equivalent if they are a full scholar or 80 percent or its equivalent if they are a half scholar.
“The problem was caused by HEIs who did a ‘pass all’ policy in their second semester. I made it very clear in CHED announcements that while the grading system of HEIs are determined and exercised by individual HEIs in the exercise of their academic freedom, any decision to adopt a ‘pass-all’ policy must ensure that the interests of individual students are not compromised,” De Vera III said.
CHED has formally written a letter to the presidents of 17 HEIs to immediately provide these scholars with numerical grades or they will lose their scholarships even as he claimed that the 17 HEIs that have CMSP grantees chose to adopt a “pass-all” policy.
“CHED has already warned HEIs last June that students who are on merit scholarship and need numeric grades will be severely affected by HEIs that do this,” he added.
Among those whom De Vera referred to include:
• Saint Mary’s University
• Bataan Heroes Memorial College
• De La Salle University Dasmariñas
• STI College Rosario
• University of the Philippines Los Baños
• Cavite State University
• Mary Help of Christians College-Salesians Sisters Inc.
• Ateneo de Naga University
• Partido College
• Pili Capital College, Inc.
• Bicol State College of Applied Sciences and Technology
• University of the Philippines Visayas
• Mindanao State University Iligan Institute of Technology
• Mindanao State University Naawan
• Polytechnic University of the Philippines – Sta. Mesa, Manila
• University of Baguio
• Mindanao State University Marawi
“CHED has given these HEIs until October 30, 2020 to provide the numerical grades so that our CHED Regional Offices can properly evaluate the GWA of the scholars and determine their eligibility to continue,” De Vera said.
However, Fr. Roberto E.N. Rivera, SJ, president of the Ateneo De Naga University, on Friday clarified it was the scholars themselves who chose to adopt the “pass-all” policy.
What the school did, he said, was to continue finishing the semester through flexible and online learning and give a grade of “P” (pass grade) to students who could not participate in the online classes “as an act of compassion.”
“Nevertheless, numeric grades were strongly recommended for all students, especially those fulfilling requirements for quota courses, board exam preparations, academic honors, and scholarship qualifications,” he added.
Rivera also said the AdNU College Admission and Aid Office reminded all scholars toward the end of the semester that CHED Region 5 still had no definitive response yet whether “pass” grades would be accepted for the requirements of their scholarships, and thus were asked to avail of numerical grades.
However, despite this reminder, 119 of the 146 CHED merit scholars in the school chose to avail of a grade of “P” in some, if not all, of their subjects in the previous semester, he added.