CAGAYAN de Oro 2nd District Representative Rufus Rodriguez filed a measure that will expand the voucher system in elementary and secondary education.

House Bill 7666 aims to amend Republic Act 6278 or the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education Act.

In his explanatory note, Rodriguez said the meager resources of government led to the stagnation of budgetary allocation across all sectors including education.

“As a result, the resources provided for education has not kept pace with the growing student population. Massive backlog in classrooms, textbooks, desks and even teachers has continued to plague the public education system,” he said.

The lawmaker added that over 700,000 students from private schools have benefitted since the inception of Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education Program in 1989.

Rodriguez said the scarce resource for the program has made its appropriation centered on the student beneficiary and has left little or none at all for teachers.

According to the Department of Education, at least P2 billion is needed on top of the annual appropriations for the program to achieve the desired level of 500,000 beneficiaries at P4,000 per grantee.

The measure seeks to increase the funding for the GASTPE program to address the deficiency in the public education sector.

The bill allocates P1 billion exclusively to teachers to upgrade their training skills. it seeks to institute a voucher system in place of the current tuition fee supplement program to further improve benefits to students enrolled in private schools.