Cartoon by James Michael Gamboa
Published by: Rezy Jyn Veradio
Date Published: April 15, 2024
Time Published: 1:45 PM
As students everyone is not born with the same line of wealth, some may afford school, some can be unfortunate. This is why vouchers exist for students who need extra help from the government so they can afford school. It is undeniable that we want to lower our expenses but with ghost students abusing the voucher program, not only will it limit the vacant spots for students, who are unprivileged and struggling to grab the opportunity, but it also lowers the chances of having one.
Citing estimates from his office, Gatchalian pointed out that for SY 2021-2022, P7.21 billion or 53 percent of the P13.69 billion allocation for the SHS-VP went to non-poor learners. For SY 2019-2020, P7.30 billion or 39 percent of the P18.76 billion allocation for the SHS-VP went to non-poor learners [1]. Vouchers have given a lot of different opportunities to students with a goal, it has helped throughout the years for students who can barely afford school.
However many vouchers went to the non-poor students which was intended to lessen the cost and help the poor who are unable to pay. It shocked officials with its rise over the past years which was a big change that concerned many.
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian yesterday revealed there are 19,000 “ghost” or undocumented students in private schools supposedly enrolled through a state voucher program that so far, the lawmaker says, has cost the government P7 billion. Imelda Celso of the Commission on Audit said that based on their investigation, from 2016 to 2017, there were 115 senior high school voucher beneficiaries who were considered ghost students, but also admitted there were some errors in their listing [2].
A lot of these students who went to private schools don't even attend their classes. They tricked the program (E-GASTPE) Expanded Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education Act. Giving everyone a voucher for the students in various schools. Sen. Gatchalian addressed how major this can be and how this would put schools in a huge debt and why this would be a lot to taking back all the money that was used for the vouchers. Essentially it was told to cease the program and revise it till its ready to function to its standard again.
Over time, a lot of changes has been made to the problem of undocumented students. It made matters much worse to be able to control the damage that has been done and how hard it is to recover, the amount of money that will be held accountable will be charged with a huge amount of refunds from the voucher program.
Gatchalian specifically cited a report from the Private Education Assistance Committee (PEAC), which indicated huge amounts of refunds in the SHS-VP. He questioned how schools could rack up refunds as high as P80 million, P68 million, and P14 million [3].
Not only does this put many schools in debt, but many students will suffer that has authentic vouchers making it harder for them to process one. Many false non-documented students will grow more and more if this isn't resolved immediately. The current situation of this problem has led to a big scale of change. For one school alone has caused a huge debt to pay for a refund.
Many students try their best to reach the voucher program to be able to finish school. It is unacceptable that some students manipulate the system of the program taking advantage of it where many students already struggle. We must take this into consideration as this not only influences many students to take over this also affects the economic status with its price.
We must keep a keen eye when encountering fraudsters especially today where we face a lot of issue with the voucher program. There is no doubt that this won’t be easy to change but over time we should be more aware and vigilant with verifying ourselves to ghost students taking advantage of the voucher system.
REFERENCES:
[1] Felipe, C. S. (2024, March 24). ‘P7 billion senior high vouchers went to non-poor.’ Philstar.com. https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2024/03/25/2343041/p7-billion-senior-high-vouchers-went-non-poor
[2] Ramos-Araneta, M. (2024, March 20). 19,000 ghost students in private schools costing gov’t P7b — senator - Manila Standard. Manila Standard. https://manilastandard.net/news/national/314428112/19000-ghost-students-in-private-schools-costing-govt-p7b-senator.html
[3] Gatchalian flags “ghost students” in Senior High School Voucher Program. (n.d.). Manila Bulletin. https://mb.com.ph/2024/3/20/gatchalian-flags-ghost-students-in-senior-high-school-voucher-program
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