Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 1) — Senate Committee on Basic Education chairman Sherwin Gatchalian said expanding the voucher program to allow more public school students to attend private institutions where facilities are available is one solution to address the country’s classroom shortage.
“Our private schools are offering their classrooms at cost so that they can just use the classroom…that’s why I suggested let’s expand the voucher system because it makes sense,” Gatchalian told CNN Philippines’ The Source on Friday.
He pointed out it will be cheaper for the government to just allow more public school students to attend private institutions through the voucher program instead of building classrooms that will take time.
The lawmaker said the government has allocated around ₱52 billion to the program.
This amount is far from the almost ₱400 billion needed to address the 159,000 classroom backlog according to the Department of Education. This required allocation is also far from the department’s proposed ₱10 billion funding that will only be able to build around 7,100 classrooms.
Aside from addressing the problem of classroom shortage and congestion, allowing more students to transfer to private schools will also provide such institutions additional revenue, Gatchalian said.
The senator noted that private schools recorded a 16% decline in enrollment amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
