Government to distribute school vouchers for poor students

The government will distribute vouchers for poor but deserving elementary graduates to enable them to enrol in private schools, President Arroyo said yesterday.

This way, the lack of public high school buildings would no longer pose a problem for the high number of enrollees and might prevent as well the closure of private high schools, Mrs. Arroyo said.

The President announced her new education policy during the launching of the "Food for School Program" at the Pangasinan National High School (PNHS) in Lingayen, Pangasinan yesterday.

Mrs. Arroyo ordered the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to release P500 million on Monday for the funding of the government’s pro-poor education program.

The President also distributed math textbooks to the students along with a kilo of rice and health cards to each Grade 1 and preparatory school pupil.

She announced all Grade 1 and pre-school pupils would receive one kilo of rice daily for the entire year.

Mrs. Arroyo said the additional P500 million for the Department of Education (DepEd) would come from the P35-billion fund for the government’s pump-priming economic program for the first quarter of 2006.

She stressed the additional fund for DepEd would ensure the realization of her policy of providing quality education to every Filipino child.

Mrs. Arroyo stressed the government’s priority in education is to close the school building-classroom gap at the elementary level.

She noted there are more than enough private high schools in the country that could take in excess public school students through the issuance of the "vouchers."

"The number one priority in education is closing the school building gap, the classroom gap, particularly in the grade school, elementary level," Mrs. Arroyo said.

"For the high school (level), there are many private high schools that don’t have enough students anymore and we don’t want them to close down," she said.

Mrs. Arroyo reminded the audience of her promise to build 6,000 classrooms or 1,000 school buildings a year, aside from institutionalizing the day care and values formation program in the school curriculum.

She pointed out such a plan has been included in the Medium Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) and in her 10-point pro-poor agenda, highlighting the blueprints of the Arroyo administration for 2004 to 2010.

Upon arrival at Lingayen, the President was welcomed by DepEd officials led by Undersecretary Ramon Bacani.

She was joined by Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., and Pangasinan Rep. Amado Espino.

Lingayen Mayor Jonas Castañeda led local officials in welcoming the President with a tour of the historic Gabaldon Building located at the PNHS compound in the town.

Mrs. Arroyo said the building would be restored to provide additional classrooms for the 5,300 students of the school.

At the same time, Mrs. Arroyo ordered the release of another P100 million from the government’s P35-billion pump-priming economic program fund for the completion of the Dumalandan Bridge in the town.

"Our most important public works (project) here is the Dumalandan Bridge," Mrs. Arroyo said.

"When the Reformed Value-Added Tax Law was not implemented yet, the release of funds was by installment due to lack of it, but now we have funds," she told the officials.

The DBM will release the funds on Monday to start the construction of the half-finished P220-million Dumalandan Bridge.

The President herself led the groundbreaking ceremonies for the construction of the bridge in April 2001, three months after she assumed office in January.

Mrs. Arroyo attributed the availability of funds for social services and vital infrastructures nationwide to "sound fiscal management of our executive-legislative partnership."