Private schools hopeful they will receive gov't aid amid pandemic
A federation of private schools expressed hope they will be included among beneficiaries when the government rolls out financial assistance for teachers in private schools.
The Federation of Associations of Private Schools and Administrators (FAPSA), with about 3,000 members, said such assistance would be quite timely particularly with many of them still “fighting for survival” amid the public health situation in the country.
Congress has earmarked P300 million in financial assistance to private school personnel affected by the COVID-19 crisi to be included in House Bill 6953 or the P162-billion Bayanihan to Recover as One Act (Bayanihan 2).
“We know this will provide one-time assistance for employees in private schools," said FAPSA President Eleazardo Kasilag. "We are hopeful to become real beneficiaries this time around."
Private school teachers and personnel, Kasilag said, “have been left out in the cold” since the pandemic struck.
Many private schools and its teachers, he said, submitted required documents required by Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Social Amelioration Program (SAP), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) as well as Salary Based Subsidy Benefit.
“Despite assurance of so many sectors including DepEd that there is a budget for it, nothing came,” Kasilag said. “In fact, we even formed FAPSA SAP group, tasked by DepEd, for the displaced teachers which we really worked on for more than a month but to no avail.”
Under its member-schools, Kasilag said FAPSA still has names of teachers and personnel who wish to avail of the government aid.
“Should it become a requirement, FAPSA SAP group is willing to submit it to whoever shall be tasked to handle the program,” he said. “We need to disclose this since some of the teachers, after a long wait, even joked that it might have been allocated but withheld and we wish to come clean in this program,” he added.
Kasilag noted that the HB 6953 - which aims to provide for P300 million in subsidies for personnel of private tertiary education institutions and part-time personnel of state universities and colleges - did not mention the basic education.
“Are we in? Are we included in this?" Kasilag asked. "We shall keep our fingers crossed and pray that we shall be among the beneficiaries."
Based on the data provided by DepEd, enrollment in private schools this year suffered the most due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic among families.
As of August 12, national enrollment data of DepEd showed that there were only 1.56 million students from kinder to Senior High School who enrolled in private schools this year. This number is 36.45% of the SY 2019-2020 enrollment at 4.4 million.