The Department of Education has been forced to reopen the application for Senior High School Voucher Program as a result of the chaotic condition over SHS enrollment, the League of Filipino Students said on Sunday.
“The K to 12 chaos has started. Parents and students are in panic on how to go about the additional two years in high school. Thousands upon thousands are unsure where to go,” said LFS national chairperson Charisse Bañez, following DepEd’s decision to reopen the application for SHS Voucher Program.
“There are several thousands of students who do not have any slots in any public DepEd SHS. These students are considering to apply in either a public university or private school but unable to do so because of high matriculation costs,” Bañez said. “Students and parents are now frustrated that they are not getting any support from the government for them to finish senior high education,” said Bañez.
The youth leader said the reopening of the voucher program is only a band-aid solution, taking note that up to a million students will drop out of high school education because of K to 12.
While the government has billions of fund for the voucher program, it only guarantees the profit of private schools and capitalist-educators, Bañez said.
The government should have allocated these funds to press for a free public education.
“This chaos is just starting,” the youth leader said, and called for a stop to the K to 12 program as it will produce more out-of-school youths in the country.
The program will also pull down the workers’ wage through the surge of unemployed youth that it will create, Banez said.
Bañez also noted that ultimately, the K to 12 program will worsen the crisis of our education system and the whole society.
“We maintain that K to 12 must be stopped and junked. But enrollment in SHS has started and right now, there are hundreds of thousands up to a million students who will not be able to continue high school education. We ask the government, what are the concrete steps that they are taking in order to prevent these students from dropping out of school,” said Bañez.
Bañez cited the case of Polytechnic University of the Philippines SHS applicants who were prevented from enrolling due to lack of voucher.
The youth leader said that thousands were affected and some were forced to look for another school.
“We should not allow these students to drop out of high school education. This is a mess created by the K to 12 program. This is the chaos that the government has started. They should immediately address these concerns and resolve the matter without delay,” Bañez said.