Manila – Immoral people never seem to run out of ways from “Ghost Project” to “Ghost Staff” and are now “Ghost Students” to fiddle with the system for personal gain.
The Ministry of Education (DEPED) recently marked 12 private schools in nine departments because they did not participate in the Government Senior High School Certificate Program (SHS-VP). DepEd promptly stopped the vouchers worth 52.5 million p52.5 million p across the 2023-2024 school year because it could not verify the existence of beneficiaries.
However, this is not the first time that you have discovered darkness.
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian in SHS-VP said that “ghost students” are “continuous issues.” Last year, the Senate Basic Education Committee he was responsible for found that some schools were charging the government even if they had no students.
This is an ongoing question that is an understatement of private schools. Subsidies received by each beneficiary range from P14,000 to P22,500. The budget for this year's program is 27 billion pesos.
Lack of accountability
DEPED will not allocate subsidies directly to students, but will allocate subsidies to the schools where the beneficiary is. According to the program's guidelines, violations include “ghost students”, forged dates and unqualified voucher beneficiaries.
During the 2016-2017 academic year, the Audit Committee found that 115 “Ghost Students” were listed as multiple times. In 2018, state auditors identified more systemic issues, such as the lack of clear guidelines on how to review bill statements using regional and departmental offices to verify them at their sole discretion.
By last year, data from the Private Education Assistance Commission showed that an estimated 19,000 undocumented beneficiaries have expanded government aid not only under SHS-VP, but also in terms of national government aid for Deped's expanded private school private school scholarship program. . .
Now, this immoral practice has been allowed to continue for nearly a decade because the system allows them. This will become even more shocking and unjust in the context of the country’s learning crisis, as the funds allocated for the program may help the least adequate public schools and support what is poor but deserved (actually there) Student education.
Stricter rules
Education Minister Sonny Angara said this week that the department is investigating whether its personnel are involved in the program, noting that only a few have information about the program. He also mentioned that a previous investigation determined that it had been prosecuted and no longer had accomplices with DepEd.
Obviously, this is far from enough, as fraudulent activities continue to put billions of pesos of funds at risk. Ironically, Deped's budget has cut from a proposed P748 billion to P737 billion this year. The department should ensure that it allocates its expenditures wisely, and that the budget for projects such as voucher plans should be attributed to the intended beneficiaries. It should also file cases against those who are wronged and ban public services to ensure they do not end up in another government office and destroy the system again.
DEPED should also propose Gatchalian's recommendations to implement stricter rules, such as excluding underperforming private schools from receiving voucher subsidies. Gatchalian introduced Senate Bill No. 2911, which aims to amend Republic Act No. 6728, or laws that provide assistance to teachers and students in private education.
The highest standard
SB 2911 not only tries to tighten the requirements of SHS-VP, but also provides a broader subsidy program for the government to provide high school learners in private schools. Gatchalian said in the interpretation of the bill that the program lacks evidence-based slot allocation and fails to provide a fair and quality education for “poor but deserved” students. He further pointed out that the current regulations even allow students to attend schools that fail.
This should not even be debated, as any educational program must adhere to the highest standards.
The existence of “ghost students” in our school represents a deeper problem of corruption, a lack of accountability and concern about the burden of national resources. Are we even surprised by the bleak state of our education system when we see Deped failing to examine these factors?
The post now is “Ghost Student”: The Philippine Daily Inquirer first appeared on the Asian News Network.
