350,000 Grade 7 pupils to get subsidy

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Education (DepEd) will provide tuition subsidy to over 350,000 incoming Grade 7 students who wish to continue their secondary education in private schools this school year.

Education Secretary Armin Luistro said the number of slots for the DepEd’s Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (GASTPE) program has increased from 257,365 in school year 2013-2014 to 352,328 this school year.

The GASTPE program, which is being provided through an Education Service Contracting (ESC) scheme, is one of the government’s strategies to decongest public secondary schools.

The ESC grants cover four years of junior high school, from Grades 7 to 10.

The amount of subsidy for Grade 7 students in regions outside the National Capital Region (NCR) is P6,500 per grantee for an entire school year subject to adjustments approved by the State Assistance Council (SAC).

For Grade 8 to 9 ESC grantees, they will receive P6,500 and for Grade 10, the amount of subsidy is P5,500 per student.

For student grantees in the NCR, the subsidy is P10,000 per school year.

“The higher subsidy is in recognition of the fact that private school tuition and all other fees are much higher in NCR than in the rest of the country,” Luistro said.

Meanwhile, the grant for incoming Grade 7 under the DepEd’s Open High School Program, including in NCR, shall be an all-in P6,500 per grantee.

“In an effort to expedite the decongestion of public secondary schools and subsequently improve their learning environment, ESC shall be expanded to the Open High School Program,” Luistro said.

The program also provides salary subsidy to licensed secondary teachers in participating private secondary schools.

Section 14 of Republic Act 8545, or the Teachers’ Salary Subsidy Fund, mandates DepEd to earmark a portion of its GASTPE appropriations to finance the salary subsidy for teachers in participating private secondary schools.