The Philippines’ largest group of Catholic schools urged the government on Tuesday, September 30, to expand its nationwide private school scholarship program, warning that declining enrollment, rising operational costs and migration of teachers to better-paying schools are putting their survival at risk.
The Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) – whose member schools number about 1,500 nationwide – said many private schools remain financially unstable due to shrinking student numbers. This is even after they weathered the COVID-19 pandemic, when private school enrollment plunged from 4.3 million before 2020 to just 1.4 million by 2022.
In both basic and higher education, CEAP President Fr. Karel San Juan, SJ said, private Catholic institutions are facing stiff competition from tuition-free government schools.
“One lung is private, one lung is public, and we need both lungs to survive,” San Juan said at a press conference.
“Because of the difficult economic situation, of course, our students will gravitate towards free tuition in public schools. So that’s a loss of enrollment to us, and as we know, the private schools are just dependent on tuition fees,” he added.
Call for ‘complementarity’
Enrollment in private schools dropped from 4.3 million before the pandemic to just 1.4 million by 2022, according to CEAP data shared during the press conference. This forced the closure of hundreds of schools, especially small diocesan schools in rural areas, and led to retrenchments of faculty and staff.
“The pandemic is an example of how the private school sector is so dependent on tuition fee alone,” San Juan said.
Many private schools are still in the red, according to CEAP. “If you ask the school heads here, our enrollments, especially in basic education, have been going down. We’ve been analyzing this decrease,” the CEAP president said.
The 1,500-member association wants the government to share public funds more equitably with private schools through expanded vouchers and subsidies – formally the Department of Education’s Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (GASTPE).
The GASTPE currently provides vouchers and subsidies to high school students to allow them to pursue studies in higher education. This assistance is disbursed directly to schools and ranges from P9,000 to P13,000 per student.
CEAP and other voices in the private education sector have been seeking GASTPE’s expansion to include elementary students – the other half of the whole K to 12 system.
“The government should give importance to both public and private. [It already] does that, but our advocacy, there should be more,” San Juan said.
The CEAP president said they have been informed by lawmakers, including Sen. Bam Aquino, chairperson of the Senate basic education panel, of their openness to making elementary students eligible for GASTPE subsidies.
Amid the current uproar over anomalous public works projects, San Juan said there is also an opportunity to push for an increase in the subsidy amounts given.
“Because now, the amount ranges from P9,000 to P13,000. And that is not adequate to fully support the cost of education,” the CEAP president said.
“They’re open to it. Especially now, with this controversy of flood control budget, which the government will shut down,” San Juan said. “Our congressmen, who are very supportive of all this, are pushing for the transfer of funds to education.”
Beyond expanding GASTPE, however, Br. Edmundo Fernandez, CEAP treasurer and president of De La Salle-College of St. Benilde, believes the government should also improve the efficiency of the program itself.
“Issues within these subsidy programs place a heavy burden on the resources of Catholic schools, private schools, especially the mission schools,” Fernandez said. “CEAP recommends increased funding, more timely disbursements, and simplified processes.”
He noted that Catholic and private schools aren’t just institutions like DE La Salle University and Ateneo de Manila University. “There are hundreds of schools in the provinces, in the hinterlands that need a lot of support.”
Private school autonomy on suspensions, tuition
Br. Kenneth Martinez, CEAP corporate secretary and president of University of St. La Salle Bacolod, said private schools are being constrained by tuition caps pegged to regional inflation rates.
“In truth, it does not reflect the real cost of running private schools,” Martinez said, citing mandated salary increases, rising operational costs, and schools’ investments in evolving technology and facilities.
“Private higher education institutions must be allowed to determine reasonable tuition rates based on actual school needs and consultation with stakeholders,” he said. “If tuition is capped only by inflation, schools will be forced to cut corners, or worse, shut down.”
Catholic schools also want more discretion on weather-related class suspensions. San Juan said blanket provincial suspensions by local government units don’t account for varying conditions across different areas.
“Can private schools and school heads be given more autonomy to decide whether in my area, my barangay, my province, my town, my city, dito hindi masyadong umuulan, itutuloy ko ang klase?” he said.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government is open to changes and plans to meet with CEAP soon to discuss the matter, San Juan said.