P12 B for senior HS good for .5 M enrollees

MANILA, Philippines – Some P12 billion in financial assistance is available for students entering senior high school this year under the K-12 program, Education Secretary Armin Luistro said last Tuesday.

The P12 billion will be good for more than half a million enrollees.

The financial aid in the form of vouchers will be given to students who would not be accommodated in the public school system and want to enroll in private schools.

“We are issuing a voucher good for P22,000. We have agreed with private schools not to charge students any additional amount,” Luistro said in a television interview.

The shift to the K-12 program is the best legacy of the Aquino administration in the education sector, adding he was happy that his successor has vowed to continue the program.

“Of all the leaders we had, P-Noy is our education president. We worked on K-12 for five years and we could not have succeeded without his support,” Luistro said.

During Aquino’s term the government built 185,000 classrooms.

The departments of education and public works and highways had a hard time reducing and eventually eliminating the classroom backlog.

“Previous administrations constructed only 4,000 to 7,000 classrooms a year when we should have been building at least 25,000,” he said.

This was the reason why there was a huge classroom deficiency when Aquino took over in 2010.

Luistro said he would not work for the government again.

“Public service is a thankless job. You are criticized frequently even if you are doing your job. I learned not to mind the critics and do what I have to do,” he said.