MANILA — The Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2) presented proposed amendments to the voucher bill, calling for a more strategic design to help decongest public schools, particularly those operating on double, triple, and multishift schedules.

During a joint public hearing of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, EDCOM 2 Executive Director Dr. Karol Mark Yee presented an analysis conducted with the Education Center for AI Research (ECAIR), which used Department of Education (DepEd) data to map learner congestion against available private school capacity.

The analysis showed that in the most congested regions—National Capital Region, Region 3, and Region 4A—there are around 536,000 learners enrolled in public schools, while private schools offering elementary education have 136,573 available seats.

“Based on ECAIR findings, if all private schools are considered, up to 22.5% of students can be accommodated,” Yee said. He noted that the potential for decongestion drops to 9.4% if limited to schools currently offering the Education Service Contracting (ESC) program.

“It is important that plans for voucher expansion be formulated strategically alongside— and not distinct— from efforts on classroom construction, repair, and leasing, currently being developed by DepEd,” Yee said. “Data shows that voucher expansion can provide urgent relief in the most congested regions, especially in schools with double, triple and multishifts.”

Yee also urged DepEd to map congested public schools against available private schools while factoring in travel time to identify isolated schools or those requiring more than an hour of travel to reach alternatives.

“This exercise will enable DepEd to see where it is most urgent to prioritize construction and ensure that there are no overlaps in our interventions,” he said.

Senate Committee on Basic Education chairperson Senator Bam Aquino welcomed the recommendations, saying voucher expansion should be integrated with other reforms.

“We have to look at all of the different methodologies for decongestion all together as one program… and hopefully that will make this program also more strategic down the line,” Aquino said.

Aquino, who also serves as EDCOM co-chair, said travel time could be considered in selecting private schools that may participate in the program.

“I guess we could include that as one of the basis for choosing the private schools that can avail of this program… the distance or the time needed to travel to a congested public school,” he said.

During the hearing, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian raised concerns over leakage and inequity in the current voucher system, citing data showing that around 67% of voucher recipients come from non-poor families.

“If you compute the leakage… [it] is about 12 billion pesos for school year 2024-2025,” Gatchalian said, citing Commission on Audit findings that some beneficiaries are enrolled in private schools charging tuition fees from P100,000 to as high as P317,000.

“Why don’t we design the program properly? Hindi naman nagkulang ‘yung mga stakeholders to recommend. Ni-recommend ni EDCOM: use this strategically to address inequity in our system dahil flin-ag din namin kayo, napakaraming non-poor ang nag-aavail ng voucher system,” he said.

“We need to use these tools, the ESC and the voucher program, to address congestion in schools… [and] to address inequity in our system,” Gatchalian added, calling for the program to be strictly targeted toward “poor but deserving students.”

“We should use the voucher program to address the congestion only in certain schools. Lalo na here in Metro Manila…nakikita ko the best way to solve congestion in Metro Manila is to use the capacity of our private schools,” he said.

“These issues are not new. What we are demanding is action from DepEd,” Gatchalian said.

During the hearing, DepEd committed to issue guidelines for the recognition of private Senior High Schools no later than January 30, 2026.