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Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Statement on the Release of Scholarship Allowances



Wazzup Pilipinas!

The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) embarked on an unprecedented investment in the higher education sector in June 2016 through the K to 12 Transition Program, to provide scholarships and grants to faculty affected by the K to 12 implementation. More than 9,500 scholars are being supported under the program, which include support for the tuition fees, living allowances, and other privileges such as thesis/dissertation grants, book allowances, and transport expenses.

In the implementation of the program since June 2016, the Commission has encountered the following challenges that contributed to delays:


Volume of documents, which stands at approximately 11,000 sets to date;
CHED internal system that is not designed to take in the large scale of scholarship administration, taking in more than 4,000 scholars per year under the K to 12 Transition Program alone, and on top of student scholarships, institutional support, and research grants that the Commission undertakes;
Issues and discrepancies in documentary requirements that required multiple follow-ups and re-submissions. 48% of submitted documents have issues, such as:
· Incomplete documentary requirements such as authenticated copy of enrollment form or authenticated copy of grades.

· Incomplete grades and difficulty in verifying of submitted grades with their HEIs and/or failing grades, as good academic standing (passing general weighted average) is needed to continue release of allowances.

Additional requirements prescribed by the Commission on Audit (COA). The resident auditor of the Commission issued notices of suspension of audit covering the disbursement of allowances to scholars and grantees approved in FY 2016, requiring the submission of additional documents that should form part of the requirements that will trigger the disbursement; and
Delays in the submission of these additional requirements from sending Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).
The Commission acknowledges that the delays have caused pain to our scholars, many of whom rely on the living allowances for the daily subsistence of their families. The Commission is taking steps to fast-track the release of allowances through: (1) the hiring of additional manpower to process more than 11,000 sets of documents; (2) introduction of quality checks to ensure that discrepancies can be detected early on, and those with complete and valid requirements get prioritized; and (3) closer coordination with the Regional Offices to expedite the collection and evaluation of documentary requirements, and communication with scholars and their sending institutions.

These steps have improved the release of allowances to the batch of scholars approved in 2017. Furthermore, the allowance for scholars approved in 2016 is being fast-tracked by the Central Office. The Commission has processed documents of 2,152 scholars in the last three weeks, whose documents have been found fully compliant of the guidelines, and their allowances are expected to be released before the year ends.

Meanwhile, recognizing the exigency of providing relief during this time of the year, the Commission is implementing steps to accommodate scholars whose documents are still pending full compliance. For scholars with signed contracts and submitted enrolment forms and/or grades of the completed semester, allowances will be partially released. These scholars however are advised to submit their deficiencies to their respective CHED Regional Offices on or before 10 January 2018 in order to process the balance.



Category

# of Scholars

Status and Next Steps

For FULL release

2,152

Will receive living allowances by 29 December 2017

For PARTIAL release

1,011

Will receive living allowances by 05 January 2017



Deficiencies must be submitted to the CHED Regional Office by 10 January 2017.

No release

933

Pending submissions must be submitted to the CHED Regional Office to process allowances


A public tracker will be available on the CHED K to 12 website to guide scholars, including status of payment and pending submissions. Scholars with deficiencies and pending submissions are advised to visit the CHED K to 12 website at https://chedk12.wordpress.com/sgsrequirements/ to be guided accordingly. The Commission’s K to 12 Transition Program Management Unit will work on the backlogs during the Christmas holidays, and shall also be accepting the submissions through this period.

The Commission recognizes that the stop-gap efforts are not enough and we apologize to the scholars for our shortcomings. Longer-term structural reforms should be implemented to sustainably address the perennial problem of delays in releases. CHED appeals for extended patience and continued support in this once-in-a-generation effort.

Such an investment in higher education faculty has never been seen before, contributing to the larger aim of enhancing the Philippine higher education sector, and will redound to the production of better-equipped graduates in a more globalized and competitive economy. The Commission will, with the highest degree of integrity, make the improvement of these systems its top priority, assuring the public that despite the challenges, it remains steadfast in finding ways to fulfill its mandate of supporting institutions, faculty, and staff during the transition period.

Issued this 22nd day of December 2017 at the Higher Education Development Center Building, C.P. Garcia Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City.


For the Commission:

(signed)
Patricia B. Licuanan, Ph.D.
Chairperson

Monday, December 25, 2017

5 Compelling Reasons Why You Need to Integrate Your Online Forms with Salesforce


Wazzup Pilipinas!

Salesforce is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software used to help companies in sales, service and market their products and services.

Once you integrate your online forms with Salesforce, you can capture and manage the leads for your business, more quickly and efficiently.

Here in this article, I am going to address the importance of integrating your forms with salesforce.

Reasons You Need to Integrate Your Online Forms with Salesforce

1. Capture and manage the leads more efficiently. With the help of using an online form builder for Forms integrated with Salesforce, that helps you create, design and integrate your forms with salesforce, you can capture the leads with online forms and manage them for sending out welcome messages, marketing campaigns and future networking.

2. Use the form builder options to make the most out of the salesforce integration. In this case, once you build and integrate your forms with a robust form builder like FormTitan, you can benefit from using various options built for the salesforce. An example of such benefits is, using the objects in the form builder setting of the said system.

3. Increase your productivity. You can increase your business productivity by using an online form with salesforce integration. With that in mind, you can build a system that works for saving your time, and automate capturing emails for your business, manage the leads, perform segmentation, send out promotional emails and carry out marketing campaigns.

4. Accept and manage files through online forms. You can embed option to accept files through online forms. Once you start accepting files with your forms, by integrating with salesforce; you can take benefits by using salesforce features built for file management. With that clarified, you can accept, share, discuss and monitor your files in real time.

5. Monitor reports and Sales forecasting. Integration of online forms with salesforce provides access to dashboard, full of various options used to help you cover and manage your captured data and files. You can monitor your progress of campaigns about your leads and forms, and forecast the potential estimates about sales. You can also perform monitoring with teams to increase your chances of promoting your business more quickly and efficiently.


Final Thoughts

With the help of integrating various tools online, such as forms with salesforce; you can secure your business leads, automate tasks, manage the leads and save time more efficiently.

Several form builders out there are providing free support, but if you need to dig deeper than a normal user, you can hire their teams of support to help you assist, set and carry out tasks that require technical routine for your business promotion.

To sum up the entire concept, create forms with online form builder tools, integrate them with salesforce and capture leads, automate tasks and carry out marketing campaigns. It will help you give your business a new look on the Internet, save your time and make you able to focus on important things for your business.

Sunday, December 24, 2017

DOTr Chief Orders Probe of Mercraft 3 Sinking, Wants Safety Measures Implemented



Wazzup Pilipinas!

Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Arthur Tugade today directed maritime authorities to swiftly probe the sea mishap involving MV Mercraft 3 which sank between the waters of Quezon and Polilio Island last 21 December 2017.

Secretary Tugade likewise instructed Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) and Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) to implement measures to prevent similar incidents.

"We want this latest incident of sea mishap be investigated on as quickly as soon as possible so we can immediately implement safety nets and preventive measures. Ensuring the safety and security of travellers must be our priority," Secretary Tugade said.

Based on initial reports from MARINA, the vessel sank due to heavy rains and strong winds caused by the bad weather.

Meanwhile, PCG Commodore Joel Garcia said that there was no overloading of the capsized vessel, which has an authorized capacity of 286 passengers. There were 251 passengers and seven crew members were on board the vessel when it sank.

Of the 251 passengers, 243 survived the incident, and were immediately brought to the Barangay Dinahican Village Hall in Quezon for immediate medical attention.

Six bodies were retrieved, while three remained unidentified as of this writing. The cadavers are currently kept at the Claro M. Recto Memorial District Hospital in Infanta, Quezon. Three more passengers are still missing.

Garcia noted that there was no breach of PCG circulars or protocol.

"There was no typhoon signal issued by Pagasa that may prompt d PCG to hold the departure of the vessel; the sea was moderately calm when the vessel left the port," he said.

For his part, MARINA Administrator Al Amaro said that MARINA will facilitate immediate determination of the cause of accident, in order to passenger safety while on sea travel, land to prevent similar incidents to happen in the future.

”Investigators coming from our Enforcement Service based in MARINA central office were dispatched to conduct in-depth investigation to determine the root causes of the accident so we can prevent the same to happen in the future. We follow the international maritime accident investigation model— one that is done without prejudice, does not apportion blame, and does not establish liability. This investigation does not establish legal or economic liability,” Amaro added.

Administrator Amaro likewise mentioned that burial assistance and hospital bills were already shouldered by the MV Mercraft 3 owner, on top of the insurance claim of the victims.

"The company is new and in fact they are the ones who immediately complied with our campaign to modernize their vessel in view of our rules to phase out wooden hulled boats," Administrator Amaro said.

Maritime authorities are set to come up with recommendations as soon as the ongoing investigation wraps up.
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