MANILA, Philippines —Colegio de San Lorenzo was not the first school to close its door after the coronavirus pandemic, as the Department of Education (DepEd) listed 425 schools that have closed since 2020.
DepEd spokesperson Michael Wesley Poa said that 20,838 students had been affected by such school closures, while around 10,000 transferred to public schools.
“Based on our records, we have 425 schools that have permanently closed, private schools po ito,” Poa said during a press briefing at the DepEd office in Pasig City.
Poa said that while private schools have autonomy, DepEd may still exercise supervision over them and may extend will still look into possible assistance they could give to the private schools.
“The private schools, in terms of management, have autonomy, in a way,” Poa said.
“We have reasonable supervision and regulation in our private schools. So I guess we will see in the coming days kung ano ang pwede namin maitulong (to see what we could do),” Poa added.
For its part, the Bureau of Internal Revenue stopped the implementation of Revenue Regulation (RR) No. 5-2021, which would have increased the private schools’ income taxes by 150 percent “to ease the burden of taxation among proprietary educational institutions, especially during this time of COVID-19 pandemic.”
Recently, the Colegio de San Lorenzo announced its permanent closure, a move that came under fire since the announcement was made after payments had been made for enrollment for the incoming school year.