Reforms sought on anomalous SHS voucher program

MANILA, Philippines — Reforms in the subsidy program for senior high school (SHS) students must be implemented to prevent wastage or leakage of public funds, according to Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian.

“A huge anomaly is happening,” the senator said.

The Senate committee on basic education earlier found that more than P7 billion was spent on non-poor beneficiaries of the SHS voucher program.

Around 19,000 undocumented students in private schools also received financial assistance.

Gatchalian said about P360 million needs to be refunded to the national coffers.

“The Department of Education (DepEd) should immediately reform the guidelines to ensure that only the poor and deserving students will receive the subsidies and reform the process so that there are no such ghost students,” Gatchalian, chair of the Senate panel, said yesterday over dzBB.

Of the 19,000 undocumented students, 4,000 came from a school in Candaba, Pampanga while about 3,000 were from a school in Metro Manila.

Gatchalian is urging the Commission on Audit to continue the special audit to get to the bottom of the matter.

“DepEd must be active in PEAC (Private Education Assistance Committee) while PEAC personality (whether a government or a private entity) is being resolved. Only the PEAC has the documents and only the DepEd can get them,” he said.

PEAC is chaired by the DepEd, but its members are from private schools.

Information established during the recent Senate panel hearing showed the government lost about P360 million as some schools took advantage of the system with “ghosts” or undocumented students, he noted.

“Under the present system, when schools submit the billing, the government pays immediately so that the schools don’t get stuck as they also have to settle payments for bills and teachers on salary,” Gatchalian explained.

“So in good faith, the government pays immediately. But there are schools that abuse the system. They take advantage. But when validation was made, there were no documents,” he added.

“It is impossible that 4,000 students do not have documents. If only four students were involved, it can still be accepted. But if 4,000, there is a problem and a huge anomaly is happening,” he noted.

Gatchalian recalled that the government resorted to a voucher system to complement the implementation of the K-12 program, which resulted in the lack of classrooms.

Due to a shortage of classrooms, the DepEd resorted to using classrooms of state universities and colleges and private schools, giving birth to the voucher program, he added.

When the government completed the construction of senior high classrooms, the agreement with universities and colleges ended and only private schools continued, Gatchalian said.

The senator said he personally knows rich people who travel abroad but receive vouchers for their children studying in expensive private schools.

“(DepEd and the PEAC) can’t give a direct answer. I’m also wondering why it takes that long to do this… The answer I got from PEAC and DepEd is that there are actually schools that are gaming the system because the government pays immediately,” he noted.

“I saw that there are schools that are really abusing the system. We will continue to investigate this situation so that we can find out if someone has taken advantage or if our system is weak or both,” he added.

Computerization

Meanwhile, the DepEd is preparing about 700 regional and schools division personnel to train teachers and DepEd personnel in implementing the DepEd Computerization Program (DCP).

Training commenced last month and is being conducted to fully equip field officers with knowledge of DCP packages and how to use them, the DepEd said.

During the ongoing training, DepEd regional and schools division personnel will serve as trainers and program managers of the DCP adoption program.

They are being briefed on blended learning frameworks, teaching and learning with television, use of advanced Microsoft productivity tools and learning accelerators, among others.

DCP packages are being distributed to beneficiary schools, consisting of laptops, charging carts, smart TVs, hard disk drives and routers, the DepEd said.

These packages must be utilized effectively to address the needs of the MATATAG curriculum, according to DepEd Information and Communications Technology Service director Ferdinand Pitagan.

“The training utilizes blended learning through massive open online courses that combine face-to-face and technology-mediated sessions. The participants develop action plans for the rollout and implementation of learned concepts among DCP recipient schools to aid teaching, learning and other services,” the DepEd explained.

“Your presence is instrumental as you will assist us in capacitating our teachers with the necessary skills to maximize the utilization of our DCP packages. Let’s leave a legacy of empowered learners and transformed education,” Education Undersecretary for administration Nolasco Mempin said during one of the training sessions. — Neil Jayson Servallos