MANILA – In a move to better support underprivileged students, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian announced that the 2025 national budget will prioritize the poorest learners in government subsidy programs for private schools. This decision comes as part of amendments proposed by Gatchalian to the special provision on Government Assistance and Subsidies within the Department of Education (DepEd) budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
The revised special provision aims to give priority to students from low-income families in both the Senior High School Voucher Program (SHS-VP) and the Educational Service Contracting (ESC) Program. Additionally, students from overcrowded public schools will be prioritized for the ESC program, which covers tuition and other fees for students who transfer to private schools contracted by DepEd.
For 2025, the government has allocated PHP12.077 billion for the ESC and PHP27.024 billion for the SHS-VP. These allocations are part of a broader PHP1.05 trillion budget for the education sector, as outlined in Republic Act 12116, signed by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on December 30, 2024.
Gatchalian highlighted past inefficiencies in these programs, noting that in the 2020-2021 school year, 68% of ESC recipients and 70% of SHS-VP beneficiaries came from non-poor households. This represents a significant leakage of funds, with an estimated PHP8.6 billion misallocated in the ESC program alone. These findings were based on data from the 2020 and 2022 Annual Poverty Indicators Surveys (APIS).
The senator’s office also reported that in the 2019-2020 school year, 59% of ESC recipients and 64% of SHS-VP beneficiaries were from non-poor households, leading to substantial amounts of the allocated funds being directed away from the intended recipients. For instance, PHP7.21 billion of the SHS-VP budget in 2020-2021 and PHP7.30 billion in 2019-2020 went to non-poor learners.
This shift in policy aims to correct these discrepancies and ensure that educational subsidies reach those who need them most, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of government spending in education.