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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Number of 'ghost students' in DepEd's voucher program 'can still be beyond' reports—solon

Number of 'ghost students' in DepEd's voucher program 'can still be beyond' reports—solon

Published Mar 6, 2025 08:35 am

At A Glance

  • House members on Thursday, March 6, began their probe into the purportedly anomalous Department of Education (DepEd)'s Senior High School voucher program, as they raised the possibility that there could be even more "ghost students" than previously though.

House members on Thursday, March 6, began their probe into the purportedly anomalous Department of Education (DepEd)'s Senior High School voucher program, as they raised the possibility that there could be even more "ghost students" than previously though.

Pasig lone district Rep. Roman Romulo, House Education Committee chairman, led the investigation following reports that private schools have been listing non-existent students for the program for as early as 2016.

DepEd earlier said that at least 12 private schools in the country listed non-existing students.

But there could be more, lawmakers claimed, considering that only 10 percent of total schools that were part of the program were monitored.

"So, ibig sabihin, yung 10 percent ng na-flag nyo, maaring sa 10 percent pa lang yun ng (So it means, you were only able to flag the 10 percent that you monitored from the) total number of private schools, so it can still be beyond," Romulo said as the Private Education Assistance Committee (PEAC) reported during the House hearing how it was able to discover "ghost students" of the voucher program.

There are four "categories" of ghost students, according to lawyer Tara Rama, DepEd's programs management. There are ghost students"if:

  • the school has significant number of absent beneficiaries during the monitoring visits, and the students' absences cannot be "satisfactorily" explained by the school's administration
  • beneficiaries are billed under specific school or campus, but attended another campus or school
  • beneficiaries are listed as enrolled, but have not attended classes in the school since the start of the semester
  • beneficiaries are billed multiple times in the same school or in different participating school

Rama said DepEd already terminated since February 2023 the inclusion under the program of a total of 55 private schools not only because of ghost students but also for being unqualified to become voucher recipients.

Romulo believed there was no need for a legislative measure to address such problem.

He instead suggested a stricter implementation of the voucher program through issuing of another order from DepEd.

"Maging mas stricto kayo kasi by now... Para sabihin kasi na may legislative gap baka hindi naman accurate yun (Be stricter by now. But for us to say there is a legislative gap that's why this happened, it is not an accurate assumption)," he said.

"Baka mag magpasa nanaman ang batas hindi naman pala kailangan. Baka naman pwede yun pag-aralan ng DepEd 'yan. Baka naman corrective measures lang internally ng DepEd ang kinakailangan gawin (We might pass a law that's really not need. Maybe, DepEd can just look into it... Maybe DepEd just need to take corrective measures)," he added.

Related Tags

Department of Education roman Romulo
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