BY MARCHEL P. ESPINA
Some 100 Information Communications Technology students of STI-West Negros University will have a chance to finish their degrees, with the scholarship grants provided by the Negros Occidental provincial government and the school.
Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson and STI WNU executive vice president, Mark Molina, signed the memorandum of understanding on the scholarship grants at the school lobby in Bacolod City Thursday.
Under the MOU, the “Employing ICT to Spur Economic Recovery” program is aimed at giving scholarships to the poor but deserving third year and fourth year students taking up ICT courses to help them finish their college education.
The MOU also said that the program is seen to encourage more students to take ICT and harness their skills in developing software applications and establishing information structure to address the current shortage of highly-skilled programmers, system analysts, and software developers in the face of the digital revolution.
The signing was witnessed by Board Member Agustin Ernesto Bascon, chairman of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan Committee on Education, Karen Dinsay – Negros Occidental Scholarship Program head, Melissa Ferrer – STI WNU scholarship coordinator, faculty and staff, the scholars, and their parents.
Lacson said the “new normal” will bring substantial changes in the present way of life and the role of the ICT will be more strategic than ever.
He also said that his administration will do its best to make sure that the scholarship programs will be responsive to the needs of the youth and the present time.
This is a new scholarship category, which is a pioneering program of the province, to provide access to educational opportunities to poor but deserving students and spur economic recovery, Lacson said.
“With physical distancing as one of the more prominent aspects of the new normal, ICT will lay the foundations for people to meet, connect, communicate and manage business and governmental transactions,” the governor said.
Meanwhile, Molina thanked the provincial government for securing the education of the 100 ICT students of STI WNU.
“Let us push education amid the challenges of Covid-19,” he added.*
