A party-list legislator on Thursday said only 300,000 or 10 percent of college students were receiving education subsidy.
To address this, 1-Ang Edukasyon Party-List Rep. Bong Belaro proposed the expansion of education department’s senior high school voucher system to include college students from low-income and lower-middle class families.
Citing Commission on Higher Education data, Belaro said enrollment in state universities and college was about 1.4 million while in private schools, the enrollment total was about 1.6 million.
“These figures mean the private sector is carrying about half of the college education workload and their students are footing the bill. The state can directly help the students through well-targeted vouchers tied to the student numbers of the enrollees,” said Belaro, vice chairman of the House committee on higher and technical education and member of the House basic education committee.
He said many students enrolled in the private schools because the public schools were overcrowded and some private schools were in areas where state colleges and universities were not present.
Belaro added: “Contrary to popular perception, most private schools are losing money, losing most of their teachers who migrate to public schools as soon as they pass the licensure exams, and have poorly-maintained facilities compared to the public schools and SUCs.”
“The profitable ones are more the exception than the rule. There are also some private schools which have long-been family-owned and neglected to improve their services because of complacency and lack of funds,” Belaro added.