Tunja Mayor's Office develops student transport subsidies

The Tunja Mayor's Office, led by Mayor Rafael Acevedo, is developing a differential transportation tariff and subsidy scheme to support university and technical students. The initiative aims to provide economic relief for daily commutes, thereby encouraging classroom attendance and reducing dropout rates in higher education.

The proposed model follows a demand-side subsidy system similar to the one used in Sogamoso. Under this scheme, direct and banked monetary transfers would be provided to students classified in groups A, B, and C of the Sisbén IV system. This method is intended to optimize public funds by avoiding the need for electronic registers on buses and ensuring aid reaches the intended beneficiaries directly.

The local administration plans to coordinate this strategy with the Boyacá Government and the Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia (UPTC). The municipality will supplement the department's 3,000 million peso allocation with its own resources to expand coverage to rural and peripheral areas.