Coral Bay Nickel Corporation (CBNC) has started releasing monthly allowance of its college scholars for academic year 2020-2021.
Currently, CBNC has around 1,224 scholars. 364 of them are in college, 759 in high school and 101 in elementary.
Nolie Mansari, a 3 year BEED scholar from the Indigenous Cultural Community of Barangay Bulalacao, Bataraza shared his struggles on the new learning modality. “Malaki po yung naging pagbabago ngayong ‘new normal’ class. Nahihirapan po ako mag-adjust kasi ang ang hirap talaga ng (internet) connection sa area namin, yun talaga yung problema naming. Hindi po kami agad-agad na-uupdate regarding sa school para sa online classes,” he said.
“Yung allowance ko po ngayon, napagkasunduan namin ng kapwa ko scholar, since magkapitbahay lang naman kami na bibili po kami ng wi-fi at magsi-share kami,” Mansari added.
The pandemic has brought major changes to the education system. The shift from face-to-face to online learning has made the life of the poor much harder as they strive to provide needed gadgets or IT equipment for their children to cope up with the online learning system.
“We have scholars who wanted us to provide them with laptops instead of taking their monthly allowances. I think this is reasonable,” said CBNC Comrel Manager Ernesto Llacuna.
Mansari expressed his gratitude to the Company saying, “Malaking tulong po na nakapasok kami sa scholarship ng CBNC. Kahit papaano po, hindi katulad ng dati na wala kami, hirap na hirap po talaga, pero ngayon, malaking tulong ang naibibigay sa amin.”
P25 million was allotted to the scholarship program of CBNC’s Social Development and Management Program (SDMP) fund for 2020. To date, CBNC has supported 721 scholars to graduate from college.
“We want the youth of the Municipality of Bataraza to have a bright future. This is why annually we allocate a large portion of our SDMP fund for our scholarship program. This is a legacy that CBNC will leave behind in the end of our operation” CBNC ComRel Manager Ernesto Llacuna said.