THE Department of Education (DepEd) further intensifies its commitment to ensuring that education will continue despite the ongoing health crisis caused by Covid-19. While there were initial talks about whether the Senior High School Voucher Program will continue, as budget cuts were made to support the Bayanihan Act, the DepEd released the guidelines about the application procedures for the financial assistance for SHS students for School Year (SY) 2020-2021.
Based on DepEd Order No. 16 s.2020, the following are considered as automatically qualified voucher recipients and need not apply for the voucher program: all Grade 10 completers in public schools operated by DepEd, all Garde 10 completers in SUCs and LUCs; and all Grade 10 completers who are ESC grantees.
The voucher applicants that need to undergo the application process are the Grade 10 completers in private schools in SY 2019-2020 who are not ESC grantees; all Grade 10 completers who completed Grade 10 prior to SY 2019-2020 but not earlier than 2016 and had not previously enrolled for Grade 11; learners who passed the ALS A&E Test for Grade 10 not earlier than 2016 and had not previously enrolled for Grade 11 or will take the ALS A&E Test in SY 2020-2021; and learners who passed the PEPT for Grade 10 not earlier than 2016 and had not previously enrolled for Grade 11 or will take the PEPT in SY 2020-2021.
On the other hand, some learners are not eligible to apply for SHS Voucher Program and these are learners who graduated high school in 2015 or earlier; incoming Grade 12 students who were not part of SHS VP in Grade 11; and non-Filipino learners.
All applications will be done online through the Online Voucher Application Portal (OVAP) at https://ovap.peac.org.ph/ from June 29 until July 24 only. The results will be released on August 14, 2020.
The full amount of the SHS Voucher for Central Luzon, which applies to Grade 10 completers from public schools, SUCs and LUCS, ALS passers and PEPT passers is P17,500. The voucher amount for qualified voucher recipients in Angeles City and Olongapo City is P20,000.