SENATE Committee on Basic Education Chairman Sherwin Gatchalian assured that for fiscal year 2025, government subsidy programs for private schools will prioritize the poorest learners in selecting beneficiaries.

The 2025 national budget includes Gatchalian’s proposed amendments to the special provision on Government Assistance and Subsidies under the Department of Education budget.

Under the special provision, learners from low-income households will be prioritized in the Senior High School Voucher Program (SHS-VP) and the Educational Service Contracting (ESC) Program.

It also specifies that learners from overcrowded public schools will be given priority in the ESC.

Under the ESC, the government covers the tuition and other fees for students from overcrowded junior public high schools who transfer to private schools contracted by the DepEd.

In the SHS-VP, eligible senior high school students from participating private and non-DepEd schools receive subsidies in the form of vouchers.

For fiscal year 2025, P12.077 billion will be allocated to the ESC, while P27.024 billion will go to the SHS-VP.

Last year, Gatchalian raised concerns that 68% of ESC recipients for the 2020-2021 school year came from non-poor households, i.e., those with incomes above or equal to the per capita threshold.

Similarly, 59% of ESC recipients in the 2019-2020 school year were from non-poor households.

According to estimates by the Senate Committee on Basic Education, the leakage from the ESC program amounted to P8.6 billion, based on data from the 2020 and 2022 Annual Poverty Indicators Surveys (APIS).

Using the same data, Gatchalian’s office also found that 70% of SHS-VP beneficiaries for the 2020-2021 school year were from non-poor households. During that school year, P7.21 billion, or 53% of the P13.69 billion allocated for the SHS-VP, went to non-poor learners.

For the 2019-2020 school year, 64% of SHS-VP beneficiaries were from non-poor households, with P7.30 billion, or 39% of the P18.76 billion allocated, directed to non-poor learners.