DepEd assures public schools: SHS students from SUCs are welcome

CEBU, Philippines — Public schools have enough facilities and teachers to accommodate over 17,000 Grade 11 students who would be displaced by the discontinuation of senior high school (SHS) programs in state colleges and universities (SUCs), the Department of Education (DepEd) said on Thursday.

DepEd Assistant Secretary Francis Bringas said since the K-12 transition period began in 2016, the government enacted “aggressive” measures to ensure all schools nationwide would have sufficient facilities and teachers for SHS students.

“That’s why when the transition period ended during the school year 2021-2022, we have already provided enough senior high school buildings and teachers, and we continue to provide facilities and personnel for senior high schools,” Bringas said in an interview aired over GMA News.

Bringas said DepEd regional offices have reported that each public school division can accommodate an average of 250 learners, enough to accommodate 17,700 incoming Grade 11 students.

DepEd's data shows that about 160 SUCs and LUCs offered senior high school programs before the Commission on Higher Education's (CHED) directive for all state and local universities and colleges (SUCs and LUCs) to stop offering SHS programs starting next school year SY 2024-2025.

SUCs and LUCs offered senior high school programs as part of an agreement with DepEd for the transition period for K to 12 from 2016 to 2021 when most colleges and universities would have little to no freshmen.

Bringas said with the discontinuation of SHS programs in SUCs and LUCs, students and their parents may consider transferring to public schools, “which is free” or in private schools where they can receive vouchers to subsidize school fees.

Implemented in 2016, qualified students are provided with vouchers to cover the cost of their senior high school education in private schools, SUCs and LUCs. Voucher recipients will receive a subsidy of as much as P22,500 per year to cover their tuition and other school fees.

The subsidy amount will depend on the category and location of the school where the student will enroll.

The Teacher’s Dignity Coalition (TDC) and Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan (SPARK) asserted that haphazardly discontinuing the SHS program in SUCs and LUCs, without guaranteeing improved access and quality of our education system, will lead to economic displacement for our teachers and threaten our learners’ right to accessible and quality education.

“While we understand that SUCs and LUCs are mandated to offer the SHS program only during the K-12 transition period, we fear that mechanically following suit without serious consideration of the drawbacks on education stakeholders will lead to another learning crisis leaving 17,700 students affected by dislocation and hundreds of thousands more by imminent congestion,” both said in a statement.

The group instead urge national agencies on education to extend the K-12 transition period to take into account the time and resources needed to ensure that SHS, both public and private, have the capacity to absorb all learners affected by the discontinuation of the SHS program in SUCs and LUCs with sufficient instructors, classrooms and other relevant facilities such as laboratories, libraries among others to avoid congestion.

It added that the quality of education learners received from SUCs and LUCs does not decline and that DepEd must guarantee the performance of schools and rid itself of diploma mills and fly-by-night schools that have sprouted since the inception of the K-12 program.

It further said that no economic dislocation for all SHS instructors and teachers and that public high schools must be able to absorb SHS teachers employed in SUCs and LUCs without loss of compensation and benefits, otherwise teachers risk economic displacement.

Also, in line with the need for DepEd to rid itself of diploma mills, the Department must also rid itself of private educational institutions that fail to meet labor standards.

“Any less than this would mean failure to protect and fulfill the right of all citizens to quality education at all levels, and making such education accessible to all,” both groups added. — Philippine Star News Service with Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/GMR (FREEMAN)