Lawmakers slam ‘abrupt’ CHEd memorandum

Arlene Brosas —Photo from House of Representatives

Lawmakers on Thursday slammed the “abrupt” decision of the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) to discontinue the senior high school program (SHS) in government-run universities and colleges.

In a statement, Gabriela party list Rep. Arlene Brosas criticized CHEd chair Prospero de Vera III for issuing on Dec. 18 the memorandum directing state universities and colleges (SUCs) as well as local universities and colleges (LUCs) to discontinue their SHS programs starting next school year. According to Brosas, the memorandum would be an added burden on parents, students and educators and also threaten the job security of SHS faculty and personnel.

“Students will be forced to enroll in private schools which have higher tuition or stop [schooling] entirely, if the facilities in public schools are sorely lacking,” she said.

READ: DepEd checking on affected students as SUCs stop senior high program

Her fellow Makabayan lawmaker, ACT Teachers party list Rep. France Castro, said that CHEd and the Department of Education (DepEd) should have held consultations with stakeholders before issuing the memorandum.

“The implementation of these memos should be held in abeyance [until] after a thorough consultation has been done with all of the stakeholders,” Castro said.

READ: 17,000 Grade 11 students facing displacement

For his part, Kabataan party list Rep. Raoul Manuel questioned why the DepEd and CHEd allowed 18,000 SHS students to enroll in SUCs and LUCs only to stop the program even before they could graduate. “As a graduate of an SUC high school program, I sympathize with the affected students, families and schools. I know how it feels to be in a program that is under the constant threat of being underfunded or, worse, defunded and closed,” he said. “[The] government should be ensuring the continued education of students and not serving as the obstacle to learning …,” Manuel added.

Based on the latest DepEd data, a total of 17,751 Grade 11 students currently enrolled in SUCs and LUCs face displacement because of the CHEd order.

But Assistant Education Secretary Francis Bringas said that public schools were prepared to absorb the students, with certain school divisions accommodating an average of 250 new SHS students next school year.

“Since we started in 2016, we have been aggressive … in building senior high schools as well [as hiring] teachers in all of our schools nationwide. So when the transition period ended in 2021, we have already provided for enough SHS buildings and teachers,” Bringas said.