Reforms in Subsidy Program for Senior High School Students Urged
MANILA, Philippines — A call for reforms in the subsidy program for senior high school (SHS) students has been made to prevent the wastage or leakage of public funds, according to a senator.
“A huge anomaly is happening,” said the senator.
The Senate committee on basic education revealed that over P7 billion was spent on non-poor beneficiaries of the SHS voucher program. Additionally, around 19,000 undocumented students in private schools also received financial assistance.
It was stated that about P360 million needs to be refunded to the national coffers to address these issues.
“The Department of Education (DepEd) should immediately reform the guidelines to ensure that only the poor and deserving students will receive the subsidies and reform the process so that there are no such ghost students,” the senator, who chairs the Senate panel, mentioned.
Further investigation showed that some schools took advantage of the system by registering “ghost” or undocumented students, resulting in a loss of about P360 million for the government.
The senator emphasized the need to address these concerns and ensure that the subsidy program benefits those who truly deserve it.
In other news, the DepEd is gearing up regional and schools division personnel to train teachers and DepEd personnel in implementing the DepEd Computerization Program (DCP).
The ongoing training aims to equip field officers with the necessary knowledge of DCP packages and how to effectively utilize them in schools. Distributed packages consist of laptops, charging carts, smart TVs, hard disk drives, and routers.
Participants are being briefed on blended learning frameworks, teaching and learning with television, advanced Microsoft productivity tools, and learning accelerators to improve the education system.
The training sessions aim to enhance the skills of teachers and staff in maximizing the utilization of DCP packages to enhance teaching, learning, and other educational services.
