The Palawan Provincial Government is encouraging young Palaweños to avail of its on-going scholarship program under I-HELP Education.
Engr. Saylito Purisima, I-HELP Education Program Manager, revealed that applications are open for their scholarship programs to Palaweño students who want to take up medicine and other medical-related courses such as nursing and midwifery.
Purisima pointed out that a recent ordinance ensuring a P50 million annual budget for scholarship education programs has been approved by Governor Jose Chaves Alvarez in order to support the provincial scholars until they graduate.
He talked about Provincial Ordinance No. 2627 series of 2021 that mandates “a multi-year budget of P50 million per year allocation for the scholarship program of the Provincial Government of Palawan,” which was approved by Alvarez on August 2021.
Presently, there are 696 scholars under I-HELP Education of the provincial government. 113 of these are taking up Medicine while 109 scholars are taking up other medical-related courses such as Dentistry, Medical Technology, Pharmacy, Nutrition and Dietetics, Radio Technology and Physical Therapy in different universities in the Philippines. 21 scholars are under Post-Graduate Internship, 307 are taking up Nursing while 146 are enrolled at Palawan State University under Midwifery.
Overall, since the program started, 37 scholars have already been certified doctors who are currently serving local hospitals that the provincial government run.