To ensure efficient use of resources, the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2) and the Department of Education (DepEd) will begin mapping all private schools across the country.
In a statement issued Monday, July 1, EDCOM 2 explained that the initiative is “meant to inform government policies and programs related to the complementarity of public and private education institutions.”
EDCOM 2 Executive Director Karol Mark Yee noted that as Congress deliberates on measures to expand the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (GASTPE), the mapping will “go a long way toward ensuring that government resources are invested strategically, optimizing both public and private capacity in delivering quality education to all.”
First-time mapping
Yee explained that while mapping of public schools was previously conducted by DepEd and OpenStreetMap, this is the “first time” that DepEd will conduct a comprehensive mapping of all private schools across the country.
This initiative, Yee said, is a “critical next step” in furthering the recently released policy of DepEd as contained in Order No. 6, series of 2024, on the public and private basic education complementarity framework.
The initial meeting for the initiative was held on June 18. It was attended by officials from DepEd, including Assistant Secretary for Operations Francis Cesar Bringas, Tara Rama, Gemma Ledesma, and Marieta Atienza.
The Private Education Assistance Committee (PEAC), led by its Executive Director, Doris Ferrer, and the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations of the Philippines (COCOPEA), led by its Executive Director, lawyer John R. Jacome, also supported the milestone effort.
Partnership
Building on the previous efforts of both DepEd and the private sector to generate a comprehensive dataset of public and private schools, EDCOM 2 said it will work with DepEd and private school partners from all regions of the country to “collect and validate” the location data of 12,212 private schools based on DepEd Basic Education Information System data throughout July.
EDCOM 2 said that analyzing public and private school location datasets will “help determine if the current backlog in classrooms and/or the congestion in public schools could be addressed through the provision of vouchers or subsidies to nearby private schools.”
The partnership, EDCOM 2 said, is also set to “fast-track the collection and validation of data of private schools” in the National Capital Region (NCR), Region IV-A, and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), as well as in areas determined to have the “most severe overcrowding” in elementary and junior high schools based on classroom-to-learner ratios.
For EDCOM 2 Co-Chairperson Senator Win Gatchalian, there is an urgent need to ensure that resources allocated to the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education are “allocated and spent optimally” to decongest public schools and help the poorest learners.
“Mapping where our private schools, congested public schools, and poorest learners are should help us to be more efficient in the use of resources,” he added.
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