Senate panel flags ESC slots for ‘non-poor’ beneficiaries

The Senate Committee on Basic Education flagged the allocation of Educational Service Contracting slots for non-poor beneficiaries. 

Citing the Annual Poverty Indicators Survey (APIS) 2020 and 2022 found that for School Year 2020-2021, chamber’s panel chair Senator Win Gatchalian said 68 percent of the  ESC recipients belong to households or with total incomes are above or equal to the per capita threshold. 

For School Year 2019-2020, the data also revealed that 59 percent of beneficiaries were members of non-poor households. These figures reflect the findings of the Commission on Audit in 2018. 

In a Performance Audit Report, state auditors recommended that the Department of Education should ensure that the Expanded Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education or E-GASTPE prioritizes underprivileged learners.

E-GASTPE is the DepEd's largest private school scholarship program, especially on the expansion of the existing Educational Service Contracting or ESC scheme.

Under the program, the government shoulders the tuition and other fees of excess students in public schools who enter private schools contracted by the DepEd.

“To me this is the height of injustice. Humihingi tayo ng pondo, binibigay natin sa hindi mahihirap (We asked for funds to give to our poor fellow citizens). And as taxpayers, we're subsidizing the non-poor,” Gatchalian said. 

In a recent panel inquiry this week, DepEd reported a 97 percent utilization rate of its 2024 budget amounting to around P40 billion for E-GASTPE. 

Lawyer Tara Rama, director of the DepEd Government Assistance and Subsidies Office, said their office is yet to receive the billing statements of other schools to declare full utilization of the fund. 

“We're already at 97 percent of our utilization because some of the schools – ito na lang po 'yung hinihintay natin (we are just waiting for them). Billings from the regional office and then our partner in (Private Education Assistance Committee) PEAC na hinihintay pa po natin 'yung billings nila na ma-receive natin sa (that we are waiting to receive their billings in the) central office so that we can verify again and pay them, Rama told the senators. 

Last year, DepEd created Rama's office in response to complaints about the alleged increasing “ghost students” benefiting the program. 

The DepEd’s creation of GASO resulted from COA’s recommendation “to focus on administering” the E-GASTPE program.

Rama said DepEd is implementing a more meticulous verification process of program beneficiaries, which reportedly caused delays in payment to private schools.

She also confirmed that the 2017 ESC guidelines do not strictly mandate prioritizing the poor. 

With this, Gatchalian recommended the prioritization of the poor in government subsidy programs as he mulled the amendments to the E-GASTPE law.

Private Education Assistance Committee Executive Director, Doris Ferrer, who also attended the inquiry, reported that from SY 2020-2021 to SY 2022-2023, they were able to recommend the termination of 32 voucher-participating schools due to various anomalies or non-compliance with the program.

The PEAC also recorded a total of 12,675 students under the senior high school voucher program and 588 under the ESC with issues—which is equivalent to P300 million.

“This year, kaya bumagal ang processing, dahil parehong naghigpit ang PEAC at DepEd (the processing is slower because both PEAC and DepEd tightened it). From our end this year, lahat nang mga eskwelahan pinag-submit namin ng documents bago namin tanggapin ang billing statements nila (we required all schools to submit documents before we accept their billing statements) just so we can be sure that the students are eligible,” Ferrer said.

Ferrer stressed the PEAC targets to remove ineligible students from the voucher program before the opening of SY 2024-2025.