PAI Ends, Sends 55 ARB Dependents to School

Eleven grantees under the Programang Agraryong Iskolar (PAI) capped the final batch of successful graduates who availed of the scholarship program of the Department of Agrarian Reform bringing to a total of 55 scholars from agrarian reform communities (ARCs) around the province of Basilan.

Formerly known as the President Diosdado Macapagal Agrarian Scholarship Program, it catered to the educational needs of poor but deserving children of agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs).It rested on its general objective to develop a pool of highly motivated, technically equipped and well educated dependents of ARBs who will assume responsibility for managing the lands awarded to them under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program and to act as agents of change in agriculture and for rural development.

Specifically, the Program aimed to make the graduates assume full responsibility for continuing the pursuit of agriculture on the lands awarded to them by CARP and make certain that they are able to sustain and enhance the productive capacities on their farms, encourage the graduates to transform the lands they will be compelled to manage to serve as model farms that will showcase as beneficial changes made in agriculture and in rural development, improve the individual and household income of the ARBs and help uplift the socio-economic condition of their communities.

Majority of the scholars took up a degree in agriculture (31%) followed by arts (20%) and sciences (18%). Under the Program, the scholars enjoyed tuition fee and miscellaneous school fees not exceeding P2,000 per semester, of which were paid directly to the partner schools. They also received a book allowance of P700 per semester and a monthly stipend of P1,000. PAI ran for a duration of 11 years (June 2003 to April 2014) targeting to send 1,500 children of farmer-beneficiaries to college.