Voucher program for senior high school to continue, DepEd assures public

The Department of Education (DepEd) on Thursday assured the public that its voucher program for senior high school students in private schools would continue this coming school year, adding that it was preparing an online application for incoming Grade 11 learners in need of financial assistance.

The voucher program that was introduced in 2015 provides cash aid to senior high school students from private schools and non-DepEd public schools.

According to the DepEd, those who have completed or have yet to complete Grade 10 in school year 2020-2021 in DepEd public schools, state universities and colleges, and education service contracting grantees are automatically qualified for the voucher program.

This also applies to all public school students who have completed Grade 10 and will be transferring to private schools, said Annalyn Sevilla, DepEd undersecretary for finance.

The DepEd is projecting a total of 1,175,554 beneficiaries for the program in the next school year, 657,906 of whom are in Grade 11 while 517,648 are in Grade 12.

Of the total number, 56,445 are expected to apply through the online Senior High School Voucher Program system, Sevilla said.

Not a problem

This would require funding of P21.844 billion, data from the DepEd showed.

“The actual funding requirement will only be determined upon submission of claims from the partner-private schools under [the] voucher program. Hopefully, the trend or estimate of students transferring from public to private [schools] will be the same or near the estimates,” Sevilla told reporters.

Under the 2021 budget of the agency, P13.692 billion was allocated for the voucher program for senior high school students, but Sevilla clarified that this covered the second semester of school year 2020-2021 and the first semester of the incoming school year.

Should the number of beneficiaries exceed the DepEd’s projection, Sevilla said this would “not be a problem because funding requirements can be covered or shouldered in the next fiscal year budget.”