Draft:Beca 18

Beca 18 is a scholarship program created in 2012 by the former Peruvian president Ollanta Humala, as a sub-arm of the Programa Nacional de Becas y Crédito Educativo (PRONABEC)https://www.gob.pe/pronabec.

The PRONABEC program in Peru is an educational program that allows talented Peruvians with limited economic resources access and permanence to a quality higher education until completion. The grant of scholarships and educational credits is done via public competitions.

In particular, Beca 18 is a program oriented to Peruvian high-school students with high academic performances and limited economic access, who are eager to enter to high quality universities of the country. There exists 8 modalities of the Beca 18, destined to specific students of the country (for e.g. for native Amazonian communities or for Afro Peruvian population). The modalities are:

• Beca 18 Ordinary [1]
• Intercultural Bilingual Education Scholarship (EIB) [2]
• Beca 18 Protection Mode [3]
• Beca Repared [4]
• Beca 18 Native Amazonian community of Afro Peruvian population [5]
• Beca 18 Military service [6]
• Beca VRAEM [7]
• Beca Huallaga [8]

Beca 18 have been proven to bring benefits for a large number of Peruvian students with limited economic resources, in terms of access and completion of high quality education but also in terms of wages and an improved quality of life.

Application criteria

As of 2024, 10000 scholarships were offered by Beca 18 to Peruvian students attending their last year of high school. The two main conditions that have to be met in order to apply for the scholarship are a high academic performance and to be categorized as being in a situation of poverty or extreme poverty.[9]Then, a candidate must be less than 22 years old, and having already entered an eligible institution of higher education, location and career.

Expenses covered by the scholarship

The Beca 18 scholarship covers various expenses, from academic to non-academic. First, academic expenses such as the cost of the admission exam, study tuition, one laptop, an English course, desk utensils and the degree cost are covered by the scholarship. On the other hand, non-academic expenses covered by the scholarship comprise local mobility, food and accomodation expenses when needed.[10]

Controversies

Nevertheless, as the majority of scholarships programs, Beca 18 has flaws and imperfections. First of all, even though there is a very high percentage of enrollment in high quality universities, the completion rate may not be as high as it should be. According to Lazo and Calderon (2019) in 2019 at the region of Junín, Peru, more than 2000 students were under the program of Beca 18, but 45% among them were in a situation of alert or critical situation, with respect to his or her stay as a university student. In addition, from the 608 students coming from the region of Pasco between the years 2012 and 2016 that were under Beca 18, 48% (or 292 students) lost the scholarship because of their low academic performance.

Secondly, even though as mentioned earlier, there is a very high percentage of enrollment of students with less economic resources into high quality universities of Peru, there are still issues with social inclusion . In fact, the design of the program and implementation could be improved, by focusing specially on supporting young students on their migration to the cities or promoting their social inclusion (avoiding their stigmatization). The scholarship was created in 2011 with a focus on social inclusion , but still differences between non-scholarship students and scholarship students can be identified. In fact, according to surveys , scholarship students only wish to join with peers receiving the same benefit, usually don't go to parties or meetings (as opposed to non-scholarship students from public and private universities) and tend to feel lonely sometimes.

Finally, students have pointed out that there are several difficulties in the application process. In fact, there is a lack of adequate information and a lot of documents are needed for the procedures. Many times students miss the application deadlines because of these procedural flaws.

Some solutions have been discussed for the drop-out of students. For instance, there are plans of implementing an integral accompaniment that involves academic and socioemotional support from volunteer scholarship recipients to the new Beca 18 students. Secondly, there is a need to improve the vocational guidance service, so students can really understand the prospects of the career that they are about to pursuit. Third, there are plans to work on academic leveling before entering the university, in order to reduce the chances of dropping out due to poor academic performances.

Even though there is a lot to be done in order to improve the quality and the results of the scholarship on social inclusion, positive impacts can be observed too. In fact, grantees, tutors and managers interviewed the Ministry of Education (Peru) recognize the value and effort made by the Government in implementing such a program.