A total of 1,089 students of the Siargao Island Institute of Technology (SIIT) who are scholars of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) under its Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) program have received refunds from their scholarship grants.

SIIT president and former Surigao del Norte governor Francisco Matugas, in an interview on Saturday here, said a total of PHP19.8 million were refunded to the parents of the students during a series of releases by the school this week.

“Each of these scholars has an allocation of PHP30,000 per semester from the TES program of CHED,” Matugas said.

Since the SIIT offers lower tuition, ranging from PHP15,000 to PHP20,000 per semester, depending on the number of units, the TES allocations for the scholars have excess amounts that were returned through their parents, he added.

“The refunds also helped these families move on as they were also hit by Typhoon Odette last year,” Matugas said.

The refunds, he added, covered the TES grants during the two semesters of the school year 2021 to 2022.

Among those refunded this week was Amelito Mazo, 57, a tricycle driver who received a PHP60,394 refund from the TES grants of his three scholars at SIIT.

“I am thankful to the CHED and the SIIT. The refund I received is a big help, especially since my family is still recovering from the effects of typhoon Odette,” Mazo said in their local dialect in a separate interview.

Mazo’s three scholars are all taking up education courses at the SIIT for this school year, with one expected to graduate soon.

“The TES program of the CHED is a big help to us, especially the poor families who want to send their children to college,” Mazo said.

The SIIT has more than 3,000 students for this school year, including senior high school, with more than 1,000 of them being beneficiaries of the TES program.

Meanwhile, Matugas said the school has also started the release of the first tranche of tablet devices to 214 of their senior high school students.

“These devices, given for free, will help our high school students in their classes in terms of research and other online requirements,” he said.

The second tranche of the release is slated for next week, he added. (PNA)