The Department of Education (DepEd) clarified that senior high school (SHS) students who are conditional qualified voucher applicants (QVAs) may still enroll in private schools this school year.
DepEd issued this reminder to both students and to schools participating in the SHS voucher program (SHSVP) for School Year (SY) 2020-2021. “Conditional QVAs are still available to enroll in private schools,” DepEd said.
Conditional QVA, DepEd explained, refers to the voucher applicant qualified but the “supporting document during the application period is lacking.” DepEd said that upon enrollment, “it is only required to submit to the selected private school the Conditional QVA Certificate that can be downloaded on the Online Voucher Application Portal (OVAP) student account.”
DepEd reminded, however, that the conditional QVAs have until Oct. 30 to submit their lacking supporting documents. “Any incomplete submission will mean displacement from SHS VP,” it added.
As of Oct. 16, DepEd national enrollment data showed that there are 2,869,661 SHS students currently enrolled in both public and private schools.
DepEd announced the results of the SHS-VP Application for SY 2020-2021 in August. The application for the period for the SHS-VP this school year was from June 29 to July 24.
Based on DepEd’s data, a total of 61,919 submitted their applications this school year. After the screening, there were 14,006 Qualified Voucher Applicants (QVAs). Meanwhile, there were 30,209 conditional QVAs who can only download their QVA Certificates when they submit the required supporting documents.
DepEd said that 2,819 need not apply because they were automatically qualified. These were Grade 10 Educational Service Contracting (ESC) Grantees in SY 2019-2020.
There were also 14,885 applications “for resolution,” which means that those under this category need to undergo correction of learner information by the applicant or validation of information via the DepEd Learner Information System (LIS).
The SHSVP is an annual program of the DepEd which provides financial assistance to qualified Grade 10 completers who want to pursue their desired SHS education in private schools, state universities and colleges, and local universities and colleges.
Automatic recipients are those from DepEd public schools, from State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) and Local Universities and Colleges (LUCs), and those who are Education Service Contracting (ESC) grantees from private schools. Those, however, who graduated high school in 2015 or earlier, those incoming Grade 12 learners who were not part of the SHS VP in Grade 11, and non-Filipino learners are not eligible for the SHSVP.
The Qualified SHSVP recipients will receive voucher amounts as follows (depending on the category): P22,500, P18,000, and P11,500 in the National Capital Region (NCR). In Non-NCR highly urbanized cities (HUCs), vouchers amount to P20,000, P16,000, and P10,000. In other locations, vouchers amount to P17,500, P14,000, and P8,750.