P3.9B tuition aid for 700,000 HS students

MANILA, Philippines—A total of P3.9 billion in new funding has been apportioned to subsidize the tuition of 703,318 students enrolled in private high schools, Cebu Representative Eduardo Gullas said in a statement Sunday.

Gullas said the amount, included in the proposed P1.541-trillion General Appropriations Act of 2010, forms part of the P172.8-billion new budget for the Department of Education (Deped).

He said the P3.9 billion is P200 million more than this year’s P3.7-billion allotment for the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (Gastpe) Program, meant for 665,975 student-beneficiaries.

“This (P3.9 billion) implies that some 54 percent of all students enrolled in private high schools next year stand to benefit from the program,” Gullas said.

He said Gastpe is being expanded to aggressively address the overcrowding of public high schools.

Gastpe has two components—the voucher system and the service contracting scheme.
In the voucher system, needy private high school students who apply would each get a P7,000-voucher that can then used to partly pay for tuition.

In large-scale service contracting with private institutions, the tuition of students would be subsidized at P5,000 each.

Other than the willingness of the student’s parents to pay for the rest of the tuition, Gastpe does not have any requirement.

“In a way, through Gastpe, the government is incidentally helping to prop up private high schools that continue to wobble from declining enrollment due to the rising cost of education,” Gullas pointed out.

The Cebu lawmaker said the Deped’s 2010 budget also includes:

* P2.1 billion to create 10,372 new teaching positions and hire an extra support staff of 4,351 for the public school system;

* P2.3 billion to construct, repair, and rehabilitate 3,756 classrooms, 2,755 school water sanitation facilities, and science and Internet laboratories;

* Another P1.6 billion to build 2,462 new classrooms for elementary and high schools in areas with severe shortages; and

* P500 million to reward 10,000 schools that have successfully adopted exceptional plans to raise the quality of instruction and learning.

The public school system is expected to support next year 13,607,517 and 5,754,477 students at the elementary and secondary levels, respectively, or a total of 19,361,994 enrollees. –INQUIRER.net