Citing findings of the Commission on Audit (COA), Senator Sherwin Gatchalian has flagged the ambiguity on whether the programs under the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (GASTPE) effectively address issues related to public school congestion.
A COA performance audit report released in 2018 revealed that the Department of Education (DepEd) had had limited data on the GASTPE’s effects on the decongestion of public schools.
The COA also criticized the program for having no clear performance indicator.
For Gatchalian, the program’s resources should be allocated to areas with the highest concentration of congested public schools.
“It would appear that the guidelines are not clear,” Gatchalian said during a hearing on the implementation of the expanded GASTPE law (Republic Act No. 8545).
He emphasized that in implementing the program, the concentration should be in congested areas. However, COA findings showed there was no clear policy as to where the Educational Service Contracting (ESC) and the voucher program should be implemented.
The ESC is a partnership program under GASTPE where the government shoulders the tuition and other fees of excess learners in public schools who enrol in private schools contracted by the DepEd.
DepEd data and estimates from the senator’s office revealed that the regions with the highest share of congested junior public high schools are the National Capital Region at 72 percent, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) at 71 percent, and Region 10 at 50 percent.
Regions with the highest number of aisle learners are Region IV-A (319,409), NCR (265,894), and Region VII (118,443), based on DepEd data and analysis from the senator’s office. Aisle learners are those who can no longer be accommodated in classrooms because of public school congestion.
Analysis by the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II) of DepEd and Private Education Assistance Committee (PEAC) data also revealed that there are 149 municipalities with very congested public junior high schools but very few ESC schools.
DepEd Assistant Secretary for Operations Francis Cesar Bringas assured during the hearing, however, that revisions to the ESC guidelines are currently underway and that it will prioritize areas with heavily congested public schools. Macon Ramos-Araneta
