DepEd OKs 80,000 vouchers for Grade 11 students

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Education (DepEd) has approved the scholarship or subsidy vouchers for more than 80,000 incoming Grade 11 students for school year 2016-2017, the start of the Senior High School program.

Education Secretary Armin Luistro told The STAR the enrollment for Grade 11 is going on in almost 6,000 schools nationwide.

“With the voucher program, students may avail of government subsidy if they enroll in the other 5,000 Senior HSs (high schools) in private HEIs (higher education institutions) or state colleges,” he said.

The DepEd has set up the voucher program, a government-funded subsidy for incoming senior high school students who will attend private universities and colleges, local and state universities and technical vocational institutions  starting this school year.

The voucher program is meant to enable more Grade 10 completers to avail themselves of discounts on the cost of tuition and other school fees for senior high school.

It offers different voucher values for Grade 10 completers, with those coming from public junior high school getting a 100-percent voucher value.

It also offers Education Service Contracting    grantees and non-ESC grantees from private junior high school an 80-percent voucher value. Enrollees of state and local universities will receive a 50-percent voucher value.

Grade 10 completers from public schools and the same who are ESC grantees from private schools are automatically qualified and need not apply for the voucher program.

Luistro said the DepEd was preparing for an unexpected influx of students who will report for school on the opening of classes in public schools on June 13.

A high number of Grade 10 completers did not enroll for Grade 11.

As of May 31, data from the DepEd showed only 200,353 students have enrolled for Grade 11 in various public senior high schools nationwide. An initial registration of DepEd last year showed that at least 855,000 Grade 10 completers signified their intention to enroll in a public senior high school, and another 270,000 would go to a private senior high school.

However, only one in four students who took part in the initial registration has actually enrolled, the data added.