The Department of Education (DepEd) has expelled 55 schools from its senior high school (SHS) voucher program while 12 other academic institutions are under review over “ghost students”.
On Thursday, Tara Rama, Government Assistance and Subsidies Service Project Manager III at the DepEd, told congressmen that the schools were booted out of the government education subsidy program for questionable claims made from 2021 to 2024.
Rama, however, was unable to tell the House Committee on Basic Education and Culture exactly how many apparently non-existent pupils were supposedly benefitting from the government subsidy.
“I cannot give a specific number because there are four categories of so-called ghost students. And at the same time, though we had already had a number of schools that were terminated, starting in February of 2023… there were different findings from different schools,” she said in a mixture of Filipino and English.
The DepEd official explained that ghost students fall under these categories: (1) significant number of absent students during monitoring; (2) beneficiaries billed under a specific school or campus but attended another school or campus; (3) students listed as enrolled but have not attended classes since the start of the semester; and (4) students billed multiple times in the same schools or different participating schools.
It was further explained that participating schools may have about 100 to 1,000 beneficiaries, with each voucher being worth between P14,000 to P22,500.
She further explained that in the school year 2023-24, “around P200 million” in SHS voucher program claims was not released by the education department because of various discrepancies.
Rama, a lawyer, said her office is looking into the possibility of filing criminal cases against erring schools.
Meanwhile, House panel chair Rep. Roman Romulo said there are policy gaps that need to be reviewed and addressed by the DepEd.
Specifically, the Pasig lawmaker pointed out deficiencies in the accreditation of schools and monitoring of program beneficiaries.
“Isn’t it that they (DepEd] should be checking if the beneficiaries are truly deserving,” he said in Filipino.
Still, Romulo acknowledged the benefits of the voucher program, but reiterated the need for better implementation.
“We really have to accredit private schools, but if we will involve private schools, we have to make sure that they are really helping [indigent students],” he added.
The lawmaker also said the DepEd should make certain private schools participating in the program do not impose additional fees on students subsidized by the government.
For its part, the DepEd assured it is working on improving its implementation of the voucher program.
