East Visayas examinee ranks top 6 in OWWA-EDSP exams

By Philippine Information Agency (PIA 8)
April 29, 2013

TACLOBAN CITY – A young Eastern Visayas lass ranked top 6 in the latest Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Education for Development Scholarship Program.

OWWA Region 8 Director Norma del Rosario identified the successful examinee as Rannikka Ann S. Mondoñedo, a daughter of a seafarer OFW and a student of the Philippine Science High School – Eastern Visayas Campus.

Director del Rosario disclosed that aside from Mondonedo¸ a lad who is also from Tacloban City also successfully passed the qualifying exam. He is Earl Antonell P. Doctolero, a brother of an OFW working in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and a student of the Eastern Visayas State University High School.

Mondoñedo will pursue a bachelor’s degree in Clothing Technology in UP Diliman, while Doctolero chose to take up Bachelor of Science in Tourism, Hotel and Restaurant Management at the Leyte Normal University. Both scholars will be signing a memorandum of agreement with the OWWA later this month, Director del Rosario said.

As EDSP scholars, the two young Taclobanons will receive from OWWA a P60,000 financial assistance per school year for a four or five-year baccalaureate degree course in any college or university of his/her choice. The tuition fee of the scholar is directly paid by the OWWA to the college or university while the remaining amount is given to the scholar upon submission of grades at the end of each semester.

As announced by OWWA Administrator Carmelita S. Dimzon, for School Year 2013-2014, no less than 105 Top Examinees out of the 4,506 qualified dependents of OWWA members who took the exam, were selected.

Administrator Dimzon said that the program is a way to empower the youth. OWWA believes that education is the leverage between the rich and the poor.

These scholars should serve as an inspiration to other OFW children whose ultimate goal is not only to help their parents, but make them proud of their achievements, the OWWA Administrator said.

Every year, the DOST-SEI simultaneously conducts the EDSP qualifying exam in Manila, Batangas, Pangasinan, Cavite, Davao City, Laguna, NCR, Iligan City, Tagbiliran City, Naga City, Iligan City, Negros Occidental, Butuan City, Bataan. The same examination is also administered in Riyadh and Jeddah, Kindom of Saudi Arabia, and the State of Bahrain.