Tuition subsidy increase set for students next year

MORE public high school students will be making the jump to exclusive schools next year after the government hiked its tuition subsidy under a government assistance program.

Cebu Rep. Eduardo Gullas, vice chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, said a P5.8-billion subsidy has been set aside for one million high school students under the expanded Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education Law.

The amount is contained in the P207.3-billion budget of the Department of Education under the proposed P1.645-trillion General Appropriations Act of 2011.

The DepEd established the program to aid needy secondary students left by the public school system’s limited facilities and driven to enroll in private institutions.

The P5.8 billion is 49 percent or P1.9 billion higher than the P3.9 billion allocation this year.

This year’s allocation targets about 700,000 students, Gullas said.

The GASTPE has three components: the education service contracting, the education voucher system, and the teacher salary subsidy.

In large-scale ESC with private high schools, the DepEd subsidizes the tuition of students at a rate of P10,000 each for those in Metro Manila and P5,000 each for those in other parts of the country. –Manila Standard Today