Students have until Feb. 15 to apply for DepEd’s voucher program

MANILA — Students who want to avail themselves of the voucher program have only until Monday to send their applications to the Department of Education (DepEd).

DepEd reminded Grade 10 finishers from private schools who will form part of the country’s first batch of senior high school students that requirements needed to qualify for the voucher program should be received by their agency on Feb. 15.

Among the requirements are the certificate of employment and income tax return or the certification of tax exemption of the student’s parent or guardian.

Under the voucher program, Grade 10 finishers who would like to pursue senior high school (SHS) in private high schools, colleges and universities and even state universities will be given as much as P22,500.

DepEd sees the vouchers it will be giving out as a “support mechanism to ease the financial load of parents who will send their children to SHS,” which rolls out in the coming school year as part of the Aquino administration’s K to 12 education reform program.

Education Secretary Armin Luistro said that all Grade 10 finishers from public schools and private school students who have become grantees of the DepEd’s Education Service Contracting (ESC) program need not apply as they have also become automatic beneficiaries of the vouchers.

Private school students who are not ESC grantees can avail themselves of the vouchers, following an assessment of their socioeconomic status. Should the student qualify, he would receive 80 percent of the voucher’s value.

Students will be informed in March if they qualified for the voucher program. The amount of the vouchers to be given by DepEd depends on the student’s location. It ranges from P8,750 to P22,500.  SFM