CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Rationale

Supporting education through scholarships to students of higher

learning is an important aspect of government’s effort to assist students at all
levels of learning to allow them afford the basic needs that accrue during their
studies. It’s a government plan to develop a critical mass of professionals who
would serve as catalysts of change and agents of scientific and technological
advancement, as well as sustainable economic development. However, the cost
of education has risen drastically over the past few years hindering the families
of low income earners to send their children to school as they can barely afford
the cost. Scholarship as defined by [1] is a grant or payment made to support a
student's education, awarded on the basis of academic or other achievement.
Many scholarships are awarded

Most of Local Government Units nowadays are making use of Web-Based

Information System, to showcase their municipalities, towns or cities globally.
Aside from showcasing, there are also LGU’s who have been using this kind of
technology to process transactions like business permit licensing (LGU-
Santiago). R.A. 10687 mandates Scholarship Program that aims to help
indigent citizens of Santiago pursue education through this program. The
ordinance mandates a City wide College Scholarship Program to help indigent
families on their financial problems. However, there are issues that need to be
addressed in the current scholarship program of the City Hall. (R.A. 10687,
July 27, 2015).

Currently, the procedures of applying for scholarships at Santiago City

Scholarship Board are all done manually using paper-based processing.
Applicants have to fill out their application forms and submit them manually to
the office. If there is any problem with their applications while they are
processed, it will also take an extra time for both the reviewing committee as
well as the applicant to communicate and correct the errors. Therefore,
additional paperwork for the review may cause a delay in the entire procedure.
The processes of screening the applicant’s credentials and evaluation of
applicant’s form are also tedious. This informed the development of a Decision
Support System for Online Scholarship Application which can facilitate the
processes of various scholarship applications.
The Decision Support System is a web-based system designed to assist
the process of scholarship granting. The system’s primary use is to assess
student’s pre-application requirements through the use of Decision Tree
Algorithm. Decision Tree Algorithm will be used to assess student’s grade,
ethnicity and income. The algorithm is a flow-chart-like structure, where each
internal (non-leaf) node denotes a test on an attribute, each branch represents
the outcome of a test, and each leaf (or terminal) node holds a class label.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision_tree_learning)
Through the use of the decision support system, the team in-charge for
LGU Santiago’s Scholarship Application will be having lesser time in evaluating
students’ pre-application requirements. Moreover, students (applicants) won’t
flock their way to the city hall because all transactions regarding scholarship
application will be done online.

Statement of the Problem

The following problems are being encountered in the application of scholarship
- Time consuming student’s pre-application assessment
- bunch number of application papers
- insufficient man power to accommodate the number of applicants
- unsecure record keeping
- time consuming preparation of scholarship grant report

Objectives
This study generally aims to develop a Decision Support System for Online

Scholarship Application through classification using Decision Tree and

specifically to:

1. Determine qualified and not qualified applicants

2. Lessen the work of scholarship application in-charge
3. Secure record through database integration and access privileges
4. Timely generation of report in scholarship grants

Scope and Delimitation

This project focuses only in the development of a Decision Support

System for online Scholarship Application though classification using decision

tree algorithm to classify scholarship application based on their income,

ethnicity and grades.

Limitation
The limitation of the system is that it does not cater all of the
transactions on the management of each scholarship like, billing and payment
of grantee’s fees. It only focuses on the online application where pre-application
requirements will be evaluated online.

Significance of the Study

This study entitled “a Decision Support System for online Scholarship

Application though classification using decision tree algorithm” will help the

implementing agency to easily assess every applicant’s pre-scholarship

requirement, this will lessen application papers that are scattered in their
office. Moreover, it will also lesson manpower since the system automatically

assesses the student’s pre-assessment requirements.

This study will also be beneficial to the future researchers. This will

serve as their guide or reference in conducting related studies. The related

literature found in this study will also be their guide to trace out additional

information.