Bea Allyson Alimangohan

According to Philippine Science High School (PSHS) Executive Director Ronnalee Orteza, PSHS had to turn away qualified students in the science scholarship programs due to "limited slots”.

Photo Courtesy of Facebook/Philippine Science High School - Main Campus.

On the announcement in PSHS's website for admissions of Grade 7 students for the academic year 2024-2025, only 1,920 of PSHS's top 15,000 qualified applicants for the National Competitive Examination (NCE) are accepted as scholars.

This implies only 13 percent of qualified applicants are accommodated and were qualified to enroll at the PSHS campus of their choice.

Several students in Calabarzon were also rejected due to a "cutoff" of 120 scholars in the region, affecting the country's percentage coverage for science scholarships, according to Orteza as quoted by the Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM).

Only 1 percent of over 27 million students in the Philippines were supported by the government and able to have science high school scholarships.

On October 12, EDCOM has demanded the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and Department of Education (DepEd) to increase the number of science highschool scholars in the Philippines.

The low quota of enrolled students under science scholarship programs compared to other countries was found out ‘pale’ by the Second Edcom.

3 percent of coverage in China and South Korea, and up to 10 percent of their students are in science scholarships in Australia and Europe.

On June 18, the official list of qualifiers for the 2024 Science and Technology Undergraduate Scholarships was released by the Department of Science and Technology-Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI).

Among the 89,510 aspiring scholars who took the qualifying examination on April 6 to April 7, 2024, a total of 10,756 examinees secured their spot in the scholarship.

"DepEd should take a look," Pasig Representative Roman Romulo, the Edcom Co-Chair, stated, encouraging the expansion of science scholarship programs, "and expand that with [other government agencies]."

Romulo also proposed increasing the support to allow 5% of students in the country to be accepted in a science scholarship program.