CCT beneficiaries required to maintain passing grades

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is requiring high school students from beneficiary families of the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program to maintain minimum passing grades as a condition for eligibility for cash grants. The DSWD National Capital Region and other field offices are preparing to implement the policy setting a General Weighted Average (GWA) in the compliance monitoring of CCT program beneficiaries for this school year. According to Resolution 18 of the CCT program National Advisory Committee (NAC) issued last January, "children in elementary who repeat a year level in school are allowed to continue with the program (but) children in high school are required by the end of the school year to reach the passing General Weighted Average prescribed by the Department of Education and/or promoted to the next year level.” Ma. Alicia Bonoan, director of DSWD-NCR, said the new policy will push CCT beneficiaries to finish their secondary education. The Aquino administration has expanded the coverage of CCT program to include children of family beneficiaries aged 14 to 18 until they finish high school in preparation for the K to 12 program, which adds two more years to basic education. Based on the study conducted by Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PDIS), the wage of high school graduates is 40 percent higher than those of elementary graduates, so age expansion shall be implemented to give student-beneficiaries better access to employment and other opportunities. In 2014, DSWD implemented the age expansion, expanding the coverage of CCT from 0-14 years old to 0-18 years old. //