An official of the Department of Education (DepEd) on Wednesday confirmed that the deadline for the submission of requirements for the Conditional Qualified Voucher Applicants (QVAs) under the Senior High School Voucher Program (SHSVP) might be moved until next month.
“We might be extending the deadline of submission until Nov. 30,” Undersecretary for Planning and Bureau of Human Resource and Organizational Development Jesus Mateo told the Manila Bulletin.
Conditional QVAs refer to the SHSVP applicants who were qualified but the “supporting document during the application period is lacking.”
Originally, DepEd said the conditional QVAs have until Oct. 30, 2020 to submit their supporting documents.
Mateo confirmed that the deadline might be extended until the end of November this year because many conditional QVAs have yet to submit their requirements. Pressed to provide the latest figures, he said: “we don't have the numbers yet.”
DepEd opened the application for the SHSVP for School Year (SY) 2020-2021 from June 29 to July 24. The results were announced in August.
As of August, DepEd data showed that there were 61,919 applications submitted for this school year. After the screening, there were 14,006 QVAs and 30,209 conditional QVAs. There were also 2,819 who were not eligible to apply because they were automatically qualified.
The DepEd noted that 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 DepEd had earlier clarified that SHS students who are conditional QVA may still enroll in private schools this school year since they are 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, however, reminded the conditional QVAs that “any incomplete submission will mean displacement from SHSVP.”
As of Oct. 28, DepEd national enrollment data showed that there are 2,890,259 SHS or Grades 11 and 12 students currently enrolled in both public and private schools nationwide for this school year.
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.
Qualified SHSVP recipients will receive vouchers in the amounts of (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 to be issued will be in the amounts of P20,000, P16,000, and P10,000. In other locations, vouchers for P17,500, P14,000, and P8,750 will be issued.
The SHSVP has automatic recipients coming 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.
Students who graduated from high school in 2015 or earlier, 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.