P12-B To Support Financial Assistance To Senior High School Enrollees

As enrollment for Senior High School (SHS) for School Year 2016-2017 begins, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) announced that P12 billion in funds have been allocated in the 2016 National Budget to enable qualified students to enroll in private schools as well as non-DepEd (Department of Education) public schools that offer the SHS program.

“This year’s budget supports the provision of financial assistance to senior high school enrollees,” DBM Secretary Florencio B. Abad said. “This will assure their families that they will be able to complete the last two years of the K to 12 Program whether they choose to enroll in public or private school.”

Under the SHS Voucher Program, each student will receive financial assistance amounting to an average of P18,300 to cover the costs for one school year. The actual value of the voucher varies depending on the income class of the locality, including the National Capital Region (NCR), Highly Urbanized Cities (HUCs) outside NCR, and non-HUCs.

It also depends on the type of beneficiary or type of non-DepEd school: for private Junior High School completers, 80 percent of the voucher full value; for the State Universities and Colleges (SUCs)/Local Universities and Colleges (LUCs), 50 percent of the voucher full value.

The P12 billion SHS subsidy is broken down as follows: P11.2 billion for the implementation of the SHS Voucher Program for enrollees in private non-DepEd schools, such as private secondary schools, private higher education institutions and private technical vocational institutions; and P1 billion for enrollees in non-DepEd public schools, such as state and local colleges and universities and public technical vocational institutions.

Enhancing public education reform efforts

To support the implementation of the SHS program, P61.8 billion has been allocated for the Basic Education Facilities, with a target 43,000 classrooms constructed in 2016.

Moreover, P4.2 billion will go towards the procurement of over 103 million textbooks and instructional materials, with 68 million intended for Grades 11 and 12. Likewise, P13.5 billion has been set aside to fill 40,320 teaching positions.

DepEd will also invest P6.8 billion to improve computer accessibility in schools under its Computerization Program and is expected to acquire 6,653 information and communications technology packages for senior high schools nationwide.

Meanwhile, the Alternative Learning System (ALS) has P445.5 million to address the needs of the Filipino Out-of-School Youth who still want to pursue basic education, and an amount of P21.2 billion to subsidize the tuition of 1.8 million grantees of Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (GASTPE).

“While we’ve already eliminated the classroom gap we inherited at the beginning of this administration, we’re still ramping up allocations for education to fulfill the requirements of the K to 12 Program,” Abad said.

The DepEd leads the top ten agencies receiving the largest budget in the 2016 GAA at P437 billion, marking a growth rate increase of 16 percent. (DBM)