COA: Why were senior high vouchers given to students in 'high-tuition' schools?

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December 26, 2025 | 1:44pm

MANILA, Philippines — Senior high school students enrolled in expensive private schools with annual tuition reaching as high as P317,314 received government vouchers meant to help low-income learners, the Commission on Audit found in its latest report on the Department of Education.

The annual audit report released Friday, December 26, flagged DepEd's lack of "clearly defined and standardized parameters" for determining students' actual financial need in the senior high school voucher program, which provides up to P22,500 in tuition subsidies to qualified students. 

DepEd launched its senior high voucher program in 2016 at the start of senior high school, in an effort to help low-income Grade 10 graduates enroll in private schools and supposedly ease overcrowding in public schools.  

The voucher subsidy is remitted directly to the school the student chooses rather than given as cash, and the amount varies based on location and student category. 

Some of the more recent controversies of the program have centered on the separate issue of “ghost students” — cases where private schools allegedly listed non-existent students to claim government subsidies. This has since prompted DepEd Secretary Sonny Angara to launch a probe and order the removal of at least 55 private schools from the program.   

But less clear has been how many of the vouchers have gone to affluent students who could have enrolled without the subsidies from the start.

COA's audit report released today provides a snapshot based on NCR data for the school year 2023-2024, which shows several recipients enrolled in schools that charge over hundreds of thousands of pesos.

The audit shows that of 3,356 voucher grantees tracked in selected "high-tuition" schools, 546 were automatically qualified learners while 1,838 were voucher applicants, according to data from the Private Education Assistance Committee Administration Portal cited in the report. 

In the audit report, high-tuition schools are defined as prestigious private institutions where annual tuition fees range from over P100,000 to as high as P317,314. 

"The presence of [beneficaries] in these prestigious or high-tuition private schools ... raises concerns regarding the equity and appropriateness of public fund allocation under the SHS Voucher Program," the report stated.

COA noted that, because the voucher subsidy covers only up to P22,500, families paying the remaining balance — over P294,000 in some cases — are presumed to have the financial capacity to afford schooling without government aid. 

"This is inconsistent with the program's core objective to prioritize financially disadvantaged learners," the report added.   

For instance, in one unnamed school with annual fees as high as P195,753, there are at least 1,208 students in Grade 11 and 12 who benefited from voucher subsidies, according to the summary in the audit report. As a result, DepEd coughed up P22.77 million in total voucher subsidies to this high-tuition school.

The problem, state auditors found, lies in how students qualify for the program in the first place. While there are rules for prioritizing students, in practice, the evaluation of applicants is largely "discretionary," giving significant leeway to participating schools and PEAC in determining who gets approved, COA said. 

There are no explicit criteria, such as specific income thresholds or scoring mechanisms to consistently assess financial need, COA said. 

Because of this, the reverse can also happen, in that students who need the subsidies the most end up not qualifying.

"Consequently, there is a risk of inconsistent application of the eligibility criteria, potentially leading to the inclusion of students who may not be financially disadvantaged, and the exclusion of those applicants who need it most," the audit report stated. 

But are government vouchers truly only for the poor? This is what the law says: Republic Act 8545 or the Expanded Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (E-GASTPE) Act mandates that government assistance programs give preference to underprivileged students. 

The implementing rules of the K to 12 law also specify that voucher assistance should primarily benefit students who completed junior high school in public schools, with income background and financial needs among key considerations.

The COA report also takes care to mention that there should be no "discriminatory" aspect to the selection process of voucher recipients.

"While the program’s objective does not intend to exclude or discriminate against any learner — given that equal enjoyment of rights and privileges is constitutionally guaranteed — the law mandates that preference be given to underprivileged students," state auditors said.

"Consequently, the program’s limited budget may be allocated to beneficiaries who are not among the most financially in need, thereby depriving more economically disadvantaged students of much-needed educational support," the report added.

COA shared a similar finding in the early years of the SHS program. In 2018, a COA performance report stated that the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (GASTPE) program — which the SHS vouchers are under — was benefiting “non-poor” students due to DepEd’s inability to ensure its efficient implementation. 

This 2018 report found that DepEd “does not check whether or not the students are actually underprivileged."

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, then-chair of the Senate basic education panel, said last year that the program was a "wastage" and a "leakage" for failing to target the learners who needed vouchers the most.