PEAC flags over 12K ineligible students under voucher program

More than 12,000 private school students have benefitted from the government’s scholarship program even if they were tagged as ineligible based on the guidelines set by the Department of Education (DepEd), the Private Education Assistance Committee (PEAC) revealed Wednesday.

During a hearing of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, PEAC executive director Rhodora Ferrer said that from three school years starting 2020 up to 2023, a total of 12,675 students were housed in schools that reported to have “issues” under the Expanded Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (E-GASTPE).

“Isa sa pinakamalaking naging concern natin ay ‘yung mga ALS (Alternative Learning System) completers na nagiging voucher recipients dahil dinedeklara sila ng kanilang mga eskwelahan na voucher-eligible, na pwede naman nating paniwalaan na talagang may pangangailangan ‘yung mga bata, ngunit hindi sila pumasok sa voucher application which is ‘yun ang tamang guideline,” Ferrer said.

(One of our biggest concerns are the ALS completers who become voucher recipients because their schools declared them as voucher-eligible, but they did not apply in the voucher program.)

“In other words, kung ALS completer ka, hindi ka automatically eligible, dapat nag-apply ka. Kaso hindi pala sila nag-apply pero idine-declare sila na mga eskwelahan nila na voucher recipients. Very clear ito sa guidelines ng DepEd,” she said.

(If you are an ALS completer, you are not automatically eligible, you must have applied. Some of them didn't apply but were declared by their schools as voucher recipients. This is very clear in the DepEd guidelines.)

Senator Raffy Tulfo said he considers this as an “anomaly” considering that thousands of students are involved.

Ferrer said that they have recommended the termination of 32 participating schools who had issues in the voucher program. 

She also noted that about P239 million out of P300 million remain to be unrefunded by schools as of SY 2022-2023. She said they are targeting to have all schools settle the amount before the opening of SY 2024-2025.

“‘Yung mga unrefunded dito, sila ‘yung nire-recommend natin for termination. Kaya nga kami nasa stalemate dahil hindi sila nagbabayad, hindi rin kami nag-allow ng billing,” Ferrer said.

(Those that have yet to refund are the ones we recommend for termination. That's why we're in a stalemate because if they don't pay, we don't allow the billing.)

She said that some schools that had “clerical errors” have already refunded the scholarship aid. However, she warned that the PEAC is now coordinating with DepEd’s legal team and is looking into the possibility of filing cases against schools that have a huge number of students that have issues.  

Ferrer also clarified that these students could not be considered as “ghosts” as they are real students who enrolled based on DepEd’s Learner Information System.

“Totoong bata sila so hindi sila ghosts. Nandon kami, totong bata sila pero hindi sila eligible based on the guidelines. Medyo mahirap sabihin na ghost dahil hindi sila makaka-bill kung wala sila sa LIS,” she said.

(They are real children so they are not ghosts. We were there, they were real, but they were not eligible based on the guidelines. It's hard to call them ghosts because they can't bill if they're not in the LIS.) —RF, GMA Integrated News