MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Science High School system has been forced to deny admission to over 5,800 qualified students in the past three years due to space constraints, effectively turning away half of those who passed its rigorous entrance examination.
While 11,351 students successfully passed the PSHS National Competitive Examination out of 49,481 applicants across 16 campuses, only around half or 5,544 were ultimately able to enroll, according to data by the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2) in its Year Two report released Tuesday, January 28.
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"Gaining admission into PSHS is competitive, with limited slots for a sizable pool of applicants," the commission said.
The remaining 5,807 qualified applicants were "turned away" due to lack of slots, despite meeting the school's rigorous standards, EDCOM 2 said.
Most of the 16 Pisay regional campuses can only accommodate 90 to 120 students each, while the main campus in the National Capital Region has a larger capacity of 240 slots.
There is also a notable disparity between private and public school performance. Private school students demonstrated a higher qualification rate of 43% compared to their public school counterparts at 17% in the admission test.
The PSHS system operates under the Department of Science and Technology as the country's premiere science high school system.
Lack of support. Limited slots in Pisay campuses, as well as the broader lack of government support for gifted learners, reflect a larger issue in Philippine education, EDCOM 2 said.
While other countries like China and South Korea support their top 3% of students, and Australia and Europe support up to 10%, the Philippines would need to expand its programs to reach an additional 533,502 to 2.43 million learners to match these levels, according to the commission.
The Department of Education has introduced several special curricular programs for gifted students in public schools, including special programs in arts, foreign language, journalism, sports, science and technology, and technical-vocational education. However, EDCOM 2 found these programs faced major shortfalls in funding and personnel support.
Among the issues identified was limited financing, with allocations as low as P137 per elementary learner and P180 per high school learner in 2025, representing a decrease of 9 to 11% from the previous year. The commission also noted few opportunities for specialized teacher training and a lack of mechanisms for early identification of talented students.
EDCOM 2 recommended increasing PSHS slot allocations to accommodate all qualified students and expanding support for DepEd's Special Science High Schools, including additional resources for teacher training, laboratories, and learning materials.