BAGUIO CITY – Pursuant to its mandates to assist the less fortunate IP youth and students to get educated as enshrined in the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA), the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples – Cordillera Administrative Region (NCIP-CAR) is offering scholarship grants to fresh graduates of the K-12 program.
“As of now there are around 600 plus vacant slots in our scholarship program that await IP youth and students of CAR who want to get a college education”, said NCIP-CAR Regional Director Atty. Roland Calde. According to NCIP-CAR director, aspirants need only to submit their (1) latest grades and if they are enrolled, their enrolment form, (2) Certificate of Conformation (COC) from the NCIP office, (3) latest Income Tax Return (ITR) or Certificate of Tax Exemption, and (4) their application forms to be provided by the NCIP office.
“Some might consider our requirements as taxing but there is no substitute for such requirements”, said Calde. He added that requirements for the scholarship grant have already been compressed into four to make it easier to applicants.
“The requirements are to determine whether or not applicants are from an indigent family, if they are indeed indigenous and if they performed well academically”, said Calde. According to Calde, they are only required 80 percent average grades which must be maintained.
Application forms are available at NCIP Community Service Centers scattered throughout CAR. According to Calde, IP youth and student aspirants should complete the required data being asked from the application form and the other requirements earlier mentioned.
The list of applicants will then be forwarded to their NCIP Provincial Offices for screening and ranking. From the NCIP Provincial Office, rankings will be endorsed to the NCIP Regional Office to be deliberated upon by the Regional Scholar Committee. If the number of vacant slots cannot accommodate the number of applicants, the Committee will put those who cannot be accomodated in a waiting list. Both the waiting list and the master list of scholars will then be forwarded to the NCIP Commission En Banc (CEB) for approval.
In cases where scholars during the semester opted to discontinue or failed to maintain the required scholastic requirement, students from the waiting list will take over their slots.
“Lucky NCIP scholars will enjoy a monetary assistance from the Commission amounting to P10,000”, said Calde. Also, according to Calde, aside from the monetary assistance, they will be benefiting from the trainings and seminars to be conducted by the Commission for free.** Rocky Ngalob
