SENATOR Sherwin Gatchalian reiterated his proposal to expand the voucher system to address the congestion of classrooms in public schools, especially in urban areas.

He cited data that 41 percent or 4,208 of 10,188 junior high schools have congested classrooms, while 50 percent or 3,737 of 7,520 senior high schools are also congested.

Data from the Department of Education and the 2023-2028 Philippine Development Plan showed 32% or 12,524 of 39,186 schools for Kindergarten to Grade 6 have congested classrooms.

Expanding the voucher system will also spare the government from allocating more resources for the construction of classrooms, Gatchalian said.

Under the voucher system, qualified Senior High School students from participating private schools receive subsidies in the form of vouchers.

Gatchalian wants the voucher system to cover learners from Kindergarten to Grade 6.

“If you have a well-designed voucher system that is properly implemented, you won’t need to build more classrooms. You give the voucher to the student, and the student goes to the nearest, least congested school. We can divert some resources to expand our voucher system, especially in the urban areas, and help alleviate the congestion of classrooms,” he said.

Gatchalian said that expanding the voucher system could also help in the recovery of private schools, which were hard hit by the pandemic.

Data from the DepEd and the Learner Information System revealed that from the pre-pandemic level of 4.3 million in School Year 2019-2020, enrollment in private schools is down to 3.62 million for School Year 2022-2023, a dip of 16%.