Camarines Sur won’t pull plug on school fees for poor

NAGA CITY—Camarines Sur Gov. Luis Raymund Villafuerte said the provincial government would continue to pay fees for Girl Scouts of the Philippines (GSP), Boy Scouts of the Philippines (BSP), Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) and Philippine Tuberculosis Society (PTSI) for elementary and high school students enrolling in public schools here this year.

Villafuerte, in a statement on  Friday, said the provincial government would continue to subsidize the public schools’ fees to spare parents from the burden of additional expenses as provided in the memorandum of agreement (MOA) signed between the provincial government and the GSP, BSP, PNRC and PTSI on May 17, 2011.

Camarines Sur, which had 283,000 public elementary students and 102,000 public high school students in school year 2011-2012, was the first province to implement such a program for its public school system, according to the governor.

Villafuerte said the province spent P50 million last year for the subsidy and had allocated P60 million for the same purpose this school year.

Education Secretary Armin Luistro issued an order last
May 24 prohibiting the collection of fees in the coming school year for public school students from kindergarten to Grade 4.

The order also said fees of BSP, GSP and PNRC may be collected only from students from Grade 5 to high school on a voluntary basis and that collections may only start in August.

Villafuerte said the MOA supports the Department of Education’s efforts to keep to a minimum the expenses parents have to shoulder in relation to their children’s education.

The MOA, which was implemented starting school year 2011-1012, also covered fees for student publications collected from Grades 5 and 6, and high school students, as well as fees collected by various student organizations.

The MOA also established a trust fund that provides insurance benefits to schoolchildren in public schools: P2,500 in case of untimely death; P5,000 in case of death due to accident; and P10,000 due to death connected to services with the BSP, GSP and PNRC.