CONGRESS RATIFIES MEASURE EXPANDING VOUCHER SYSTEM TO COVER KINDER TO GRADE 6

THE Senate and the House of Representatives have ratified the reconciled version of the bill expanding the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (GASTPE) Act, a priority measure under the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC), advancing reforms to the government assistance programs for private basic education.

Principally authored by EDCOM 2 co-chairpersons Senators Bam Aquino and Joel Villanueva, Reps. Roman Romulo and Jude Acidre, together with EDCOM 2 Commissioners, Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian, Senator Loren Legarda, Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong, and Rep. Anna Victoria Veloso-Tuazon, the measure updates the nearly four-decade-old GASTPE framework by establishing a better targeted, transparent, and data-driven Basic Education Voucher Program covering learners from Kindergarten to Grade 12.

The reform comes amid persistent classroom shortages across the country. DepEd’s classroom backlog stands at 147,347, as of September 2025, while 1,889 schools operated on double or triple shifts in SY 2024–2025, requiring an estimated 52,871 additional classrooms to eliminate shifting.

Under the new measure, qualified learners from Kindergarten to Grade 6 may now receive a Basic Education Voucher Assistance, allowing the government to make use of available capacity in private schools while providing families with additional schooling options and helping ease congestion in overcrowded public schools. Based on EDCOM findings, this is estimated to support 22.5% or 121,035 of aisle learners,providing urgent relief to congested public schools.

Under the measure, the Voucher Program will prioritize learners in attending public schools identified by DepEd as congested, those living in areas without a nearby public school, and those living in areas with congested public schools.

The measure also requires DepEd to establish a public dashboard that provides information on participating private schools, containing information such as school location, available slots, current tuition fees, and any required top-up when the voucher is lower than the tuition fee. This is intended to enable students and families to make better choices as to which schools to apply in. 

The measure likewise institutionalizes a Nationwide School Congestion Mapping and Strategic Allocation Framework to be established by DepEd. This is meant to  support evidence-based planning and voucher allocation, taking into account the different interventions of the government to decongest schools, deliberately ensuring that the voucher allocations complement DepEd’s ongoing efforts in classroom construction. 

The measure also creates a Bureau of Private Education within the Department of Education, which will serve as the focal office for the supervision and implementation of government assistance programs for private basic education institutions.

“Government assistance to private education has demonstrated that public and private schools can work as partners in delivering quality education. The expansion of GASTPE updates that partnership for today’s realities. By making the voucher system more targeted, transparent, and responsive to where learners need it most, we are strengthening the use of public resources to expand access and improve learning opportunities,” said EDCOM 2 Co-Chairperson Rep. Roman Romulo.

Senator Bam Aquino, EDCOM 2 co-chairperson, said the measure expands the options available to learners and families while addressing capacity constraints in the public school system.

“This measure is ultimately about our learners. No child should have to study in overcrowded classrooms simply because there is no available space in the public school nearest to them. By expanding vouchers to include Kindergarten and elementary learners, we are giving families more options much earlier, while making better use of existing capacity in private schools,” said Aquino.

Following the ratification of the bicameral conference committee report, the reconciled bill will be submitted to the Office of the President for the President’s action.