SENATOR Sherwin Gatchalian will file a bill that aims to expand the coverage of government assistance and subsidies to private schools to cover learners from Kindergarten to Grade 6.

Currently, the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education or GASTPE subsidies are given only to students in senior high school.

“We have to innovate in terms of how to address basic concerns such as lack of classrooms, teachers, and books for our learners. One of the things that we are going to expand is the voucher program of the basic education system,” Gatchalian said.

The Senior High School-Voucher Program extends financial assistance to qualified SHS learners from participating private or non-DepEd schools where learners receive subsidies in the form of vouchers.

There is also the Educational Service Contracting or ESC for junior high school students, which utilizes the excess capacities of certified private junior high schools by allocating slots to students who would have gone to public schools.

However, for Gatchalian, the program for financial assistance to eligible learners should adopt the voucher system, noting that it is more efficient. He also said that that private schools that participate in the voucher program should be screened for quality.

“There should be an aspect on quality too so that private schools are incentivized to raise their quality. On top of that, they will have an opportunity to service our learners through the vouchers that the government will give,” the senator said.

The expansion of the voucher system, he added, will help decongest public schools in urban areas, where private schools have excess capacities.

To ensure the efficient use of funds, the lawmaker said that the subsidies should be location-specific and target areas with high concentration of public schools.

Gatchalian added that the expanded voucher program can help private schools recover from the impact of the Covid19 pandemic.

For School Year 2020-2021, there were 3.2 million learners enrolled in private schools, the equivalent of only 14% of total enrollment in basic education.