By Isabela Panlilio

In the upcoming school year 2024-2025, the Senior High School (SHS) Program will be discontinued in state and local universities and colleges (SUCs and LUCs). According to the Department of Education (DepEd), 17,751 Grade 11 students are currently enrolled in SHS programs being offered in SUCs and LUCs. As thousands of students are displaced from senior high school, they are left with the choice to enroll in either public or private schools and utilize the voucher program. This also leaves them alone to fend for themselves due to the lack of funding in both secondary and higher education.

CMO No. 32 and 33 series of 2015 and 2016 were the grounds for justification of the discontinuation of funding for the SHS Program in SUCs and LUCs. These mandate that the engagement of SUCs and LUCs is limited only to the transition period of K-12, which spans from SY 2016-2017 to SY 2020-2021. Yet, as the program reaches its eight-year mark, we must still evaluate whether it has genuinely integrated into the Philippine educational system. 

Settled In? 

The Philippine educational system remains underfunded across all levels from primary to higher education, and senior high school is no exception. DepEd continues to suffer from underfunding, with shortages of classrooms and teaching staff hindering schools’ ability to accommodate more students. 

In defense of the directive, Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairman J. Prospero de Vera III mentioned, “This is not just an exclusive decision of SUCs and LUCs and all of CHED. If there is capacity in regular schools, under the law, that’s where students should be studying,” However, many high schools, especially those in rural areas, lack the necessary capacity. Last 2023, the country found itself 159,000 classrooms short. For public senior high schools, approximately 50% of 7,520 classrooms were said to be congested. Consider the implications of the halting of the SHS program in various SUCs and LUCs around the country. These 17,700 students would further strain the already limited capacity of classrooms. Yet, as of now, there has been no new initiative coming from DepEd to increase classrooms, facilities, and resources for public senior high schools. 

Despite the classroom shortage, only around 68% or four million out of six million Filipinos aged 16 to 18 years old, are enrolled in senior high school. Aside from this, a 2018 report from DepEd revealed that in Region 2, Grade 12 students scored extremely low on the National Achievement Test. In all subjects, particularly Science, Philosophy, Humanities, Media and Information Literacy, Mathematics, Language, Social Studies, and 21st Century Skills, the region performed well below the acceptable Mean Percentage Score, failing to surpass a proficiency level of 75% accuracy in all areas. While these results analyze only one of many regions, they begin to raise questions about whether senior high schools, especially those in marginalized and rural areas, have truly settled in. However, with the termination of the SHS Program, thousands of students are left hanging in the air, further exacerbating the current state of our country’s educational system.

It is these 17,700 students who will be the most affected by the removal of the SHS program in SUCs and LUCs. With a lack of classrooms and other facilities for public high schools, many senior high school students may opt to enroll in private schools and impose a heavier financial burden on their families, or simply drop out of school—either to take a gap year or never return to the classroom again. The Department of Education must ensure that all these displaced students have a school to attend without any other additional financial burden. On the other hand, while the termination of the SHS Program raises concerns about the removal of some teachers in SUCs and LUCs, CHED ensures that all these teachers are being offered positions in the same institutions where they are currently employed.

While senior high school continues, this two-year program desperately needs government initiatives to further develop the curriculum, facilities, and the well-being of its students and teachers. These initiatives can only occur with a proper allocation of the Department of Education’s budget, which should already be prioritized, considering the department receives one of the largest yearly budgets. Filipino youth, especially high school students, do not deserve to be displaced and drop out of school. What they truly need is a government committed to supporting their needs and ensuring their right to accessible education.