Article 14, section 1 of the Philippine Constitution states that, "The State shall protect the rights of all citizens to quality education at all levels and shall take appropriate steps to make such education accessible to all."

Thus, to ensure the realization of this mandate, the government through RA 8545 created the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (Gastpe). In 1982, the Education Service Contracting (ESC), a scheme, which provides tuition subsidy to students, that cannot be accommodated in the public schools and are enrolled in the private schools. All schools recognized by the government are entitled to receive allocations.

Meanwhile, in 2006, another form of assistance to private education was established and started as a pump-priming program of the Office of the President, the Education Voucher System (EVS).

ESC and EVS programs are systems of government financial assistance that provide grants for deserving elementary school graduates to pursue secondary education in a private high school of their choice. Its main objective is to decongest overcrowded public secondary schools by utilizing excess capacities in private schools.

It is a four-year funding commitment by the government beneficiary coursed through a program participating private high school. Grants are not awarded at higher year levels and no individual beneficiary can enjoy both programs. The grant amount as tuition subsidy is pegged at P5,000 a year in all regions except in NCR where the first two years is P10,000 and the remaining years, P5,000.

ESC grantees shall be distributed in such a way that a participating school shall enroll 60 percent coming from the public schools and 40 percent coming from the private schools. However in areas where there is no public school within a 1.5-kilometer radius, the 60 percent minimum for grantees from public elementary schools shall not apply.

For EVS, the vouchers are exclusively distributed to public elementary school graduates, PEPT passers and ALS first year qualifiers of high school age. The voucher shall be valid only until October 15, 2009.

A customized web-based processing system for ESC and EVS was designed by the Fund for Assistance to Private Education (Fape), the agency tasked to manage the program to facilitate the systematic reporting and billing system. The innovation aimed to generate timely, updated and instant data, speed up processing time of ESC and EVS grants, improve accuracy of school listings and billing statements, generate status reports for DepEd and other agencies, lessen paper works and facilitate monitoring activities.

A two-day regional orientation was conducted by Fape and DepEd at Grand Menseng Hotel, Davao City to discuss the guidelines, the online encoding system, orientation of the BEIS and talks from various experts in their field.

Fape executive director Carolina C. Porio delivered the keynote speech during the orientation. She announced the grant of P250 per student salary subsidy for the teachers of the private schools implementing the program.

Director Estigoy emphasized the importance of the equal treatment for students for both the ESC/EVS grantees and their regular students in the private schools.

Congressman Mariano U. Piamonte Jr. of A Teacher party-list talked on "Legislative Issues and Concerns Affecting Private Schools" while "Health and Wellness Management for School Administrators" was handled by Mrs. Juliet Cortuna, also of A Teacher.

The entire program was managed by Mr. Jimmie Loe P. Dela Vega, executive director of Davao Association of Colleges and Schools (Dacs) at the same time ESC and EVS regional coordinator. Secondary Chief Dr. Luzminda O. Onor, Deped regional ESC-EVS coordinator Feleciano A. Tamondong Jr., Chief Planning Officer Katherine Acosta and other regional and division officials including this writer also graced the orientation.

By: Lorenzo E. Mendoza, M.A. Sunstar Davao