TL;DR: DepEd rebuilt senior high school financial assistance in DepEd Order No. 011, s. 2026, effective SY 2026-2027. The SHS voucher is now worth PHP 14,000 to PHP 22,500 a year, set by school location and applicant category, and only Category E — private school Grade 10 completers — still applies online through OVAP. Everyone else submits to their chosen school. ESC for Grades 7-10 pays PHP 13,000 in NCR, PHP 11,000 in highly urbanised cities outside NCR and PHP 9,000 elsewhere. Both are prioritised by household income.
Introduction
Senior high school is where the cost of private education first bites for many Filipino families, and where the government subsidy system is most misunderstood.
That system was rewritten this year. DepEd Order No. 011, s. 2026 consolidates the Education Service Contracting (ESC) programme, the Teachers Salary Subsidy and the Senior High School Voucher Program into a single E-GASTPE framework, takes effect at the start of SY 2026-2027, and stays in force until amended. It changed the categories, the prioritisation, and — most practically — where you file.
Almost every voucher explainer online still describes the previous arrangement. This one works from the order.
The SHS Voucher Program under DO 011, s. 2026
The voucher is a tuition subsidy that lets a Grade 10 completer enrol at a participating private senior high school. It is applied to your fees at the school, and it runs for two consecutive years beginning in Grade 11 — a maximum of two years even if completion takes longer.
What it is worth
The applicable amount depends on the location of the private school and your applicant category.
| Location of the private school | Categories A, B, C | Categories D, E |
|---|---|---|
| National Capital Region | PHP 22,500 | PHP 18,000 |
| Highly urbanised cities outside NCR | PHP 20,000 | PHP 16,000 |
| All other locations | PHP 17,500 | PHP 14,000 |
Two things about that table matter more than the numbers themselves.
First, these are maximums. A participating school is paid the total school fees it charges or the applicable voucher amount, whichever is lower — so the voucher never becomes cash in your pocket, and it never exceeds the actual bill.
Second, DepEd states the amounts are reviewed periodically and may be adjusted by the State Assistance Council or, in its absence, by DepEd itself. Confirm the current figure with your target school before you budget two years around it.
The five categories
This is the part that changed most. Eligible Grade 10 completers are classified into five categories, and the category decides both your priority and where you file.
| Category | Who it covers | Where you apply |
|---|---|---|
| A | Grade 10 completers in special equity groups, except ALS: poor or near-poor per the CBMS, 4Ps beneficiaries, learners in geographically isolated, disadvantaged and conflict-affected areas, Indigenous Peoples, persons with disabilities, and learners with special needs | at the chosen school |
| B | Grade 10 completers from public junior high schools, except ALS, from poor to middle-middle income households | at the chosen school |
| C | Grade 10 passers of the ALS Accreditation and Equivalency Test or the PEPT, from poor to middle-middle income households | at the chosen school |
| D | Grade 10 ESC grantees | at the chosen school |
| E | Grade 10 completers from private schools, from poor to middle-middle income households | online through OVAP |
Prioritisation runs sequentially from A to D, with Category A first. Within Category B, priority goes to learners from congested public schools or living in areas with congested public schools at the division level. Within every category, learners from poor households are served before low-income, then lower-middle, then middle-middle, using the income classifications set by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies.
Category E is processed only after A to D, subject to programme capacity and available funds. That is a meaningful demotion for private school families who previously treated OVAP as a straightforward route.
How to apply
If you are Category A, B, C or D: submit your documents directly to your chosen participating senior high school during enrolment. An SHS VP School Committee — chaired by the school head, with one PTA parent representative and one faculty representative — screens and approves applications, within ten working days of the submission deadline. Ineligible applicants must be notified in writing within three working days of evaluation.
Documents generally comprise proof of Philippine citizenship and residency, your SF 9 learner progress report card, the SHS VP Application Form, and an Affidavit of Family Financial Capacity with proof of income — an ITR, certificate of employment, BIR Form 2316 or recent payslip; an employment contract for overseas work; a notarised affidavit if self-employed; or a certificate of tax exemption or barangay certificate of indigency if unemployed. Categories A and C add their own proofs: a 4Ps ID, a barangay GIDCA certification, an NCIP certificate of membership, a PWD ID, or an ALS or PEPT certificate of rating from the Bureau of Education Assessment.
If you are Category E: apply online at ovap.peac.org.ph, uploading the Voucher Application Form and the same documentary set. Results are posted in OVAP, and that posting constitutes official notice. Applications with minor clerical deficiencies get ten working days after results to correct them; miss that and the application is finally disapproved.
The application is free. Neither DepEd nor PEAC charges anything for it, and multiple applications are discouraged.
Once approved, download your Qualified Voucher Applicant certificate from OVAP and submit it to your chosen school as part of enrolment. Participating schools are listed on the DepEd website.
Full walkthrough in our SHS Voucher Program guide.
Education Service Contracting (ESC), Grades 7-10
ESC is the junior high school programme that feeds into the voucher. It is not a senior high school grant, but it determines whether you enter senior high as Category D.
- Who it is for: Grade 6 graduates entering a participating private junior high school, screened into the same A-to-D priority categories — special equity groups, public school graduates, ALS or PEPT passers, and private school graduates, all conditioned on poor to middle-middle household income.
- What it pays per year: PHP 13,000 in NCR, PHP 11,000 in highly urbanised cities outside NCR, PHP 9,000 everywhere else. If the school total fees are lower than the grant, the school is paid only those fees.
- How long it lasts: the amount set when the grantee enters Grade 7 carries through all four junior high years.
- How to apply: submit documents directly to your chosen ESC-participating junior high school on enrolment. An ESC School Committee approves applicants against the school allocated slot count.
More in our ESC grant guide.
Private school scholarships for senior high
Government subsidies rarely cover a private senior high school bill in full, so institutional scholarships are where the remaining gap gets closed. A few concrete examples, taken from the schools' own published terms:
Mapua University
- E.T. Yuchengco Scholarship (SHS): open to Grade 11 applicants with at least an 85 percent general weighted average and matching Grade 9 grades in science, mathematics and English, or who score at least 85 percent in the Mapua Program Placement Assessment. Benefits are a free matriculation fee and an annual stipend of PHP 5,000. Retention requires a cumulative GWA of 90 percent or higher at the end of every academic year and no grade below 80 percent in any course, and the scholarship cannot be combined with other university financial aid.
- Academic Scholarship for President Listers: a student who places top in their strand with a semestral GWA of 98 to 100 percent receives a 100 percent tuition discount for the following semester; 95 to 97.9 percent earns a 50 percent discount. Conditions include no failed grades, no final grade below 85 in any semester and no quarterly grade below 80.
Other private providers
STI, Ateneo de Manila and De La Salle all run senior high school financial assistance of some form, from entrance scholarships tied to academic performance to need-based aid. None of them publishes a single stable figure worth quoting here, so ask the admissions office directly for the current terms and get them in writing.
What to ask any private SHS
Use SchoolFinderPH to shortlist schools near you, then ask each admissions office:
- Do you participate in the SHS Voucher Program, and which categories have you been able to accommodate recently?
- What is the total annual fee, so I can work out the gap after the voucher?
- What academic scholarships exist, and at what GWA?
- Are there arts, athletic or sibling discounts, and can they stack with the voucher?
Other assistance for SHS students
- Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps). Educational cash grants for beneficiary households, through DSWD. 4Ps status also places a learner in Category A for both the voucher and ESC, which is the highest priority tier.
- LGU scholarships. Many cities and municipalities fund senior high school grants for residents. Check with your local government — see our LGU scholarship guide.
- Congressional and barangay programmes. District offices and barangays run smaller educational assistance funds. See congressional and senatorial scholarships and barangay and provincial scholarships.
Using senior high to set up college funding
Senior high school is also when the college scholarship groundwork gets laid.
Grade 11
- Keep your grades high. Merit programmes are ranked, not thresholded — the new Bagong Pilipinas Merit Scholarship Program wants the top five of your graduating class or a 95 percent GWA, and the CHED Scholarship Program sets its floor at 93 percent.
- Choose your elective cluster with the end in mind. Under the Strengthened SHS Curriculum, incoming Grade 11 students from SY 2026-2027 pick between an Academic and a Technical-Professional track organised into clusters rather than named strands.
- Build a document folder now: PSA birth certificate, report cards, parents' income documents.
Grade 12
- Last quarter of the year: register for the DOST-SEI Undergraduate Scholarship Examination at science-scholarships.ph. Check the current eligible-course list rather than an older copy.
- February: the DOST-SEI examination is typically held early in the year — the 2026 sitting was on 21-22 February. The SM Foundation window also opened in February, running 1-28 February 2026.
- Through the year: CHED, UniFAST and the private foundations announce their own windows, several of them only weeks long. Follow the agencies directly rather than waiting for a roundup.
Full list in our guide to the top 20 scholarships for Filipino college students.
Comparison of the government SHS programmes
| Programme | Annual amount | Grade levels | Where you apply |
|---|---|---|---|
| SHS voucher, Categories A-C | PHP 17,500 to PHP 22,500 | 11-12 | chosen school |
| SHS voucher, Categories D-E | PHP 14,000 to PHP 18,000 | 11-12 | chosen school (D), OVAP (E) |
| ESC | PHP 9,000 to PHP 13,000 | 7-10 | chosen school |
| 4Ps education grant | varies | all | DSWD |
| LGU scholarships | varies | varies | LGU |
Six things worth doing
- Work out your category before anything else. It sets both your voucher tier and your filing route, and the two differ by up to PHP 4,500 a year.
- File at the school, not online, unless you are Category E. Filing in the wrong place wastes the window.
- Get the Affidavit of Family Financial Capacity right. Incomplete or improperly notarised documents are named in the order as a ground for disapproval.
- Pick a school where the gap is affordable, not the most prestigious one the voucher partly covers. You are committing to two years.
- Ask about stacking. Institutional academic scholarships can sit on top of a voucher; find out before you enrol.
- Re-verify every year. DepEd has changed the amounts, the categories and the filing route within the last two cycles. Assume nothing carries over.
Sources
- DepEd Order No. 011, s. 2026 — voucher amounts (Section 48, Table 13), ESC grant amounts (Section 21, Table 5), applicant categories (Tables 8 and 9), prioritisation, and the school-committee and OVAP application routes
- Mapua University published scholarship terms for senior high school
- SM Foundation and DOST-SEI published application timing
Start with SchoolFinderPH to find participating senior high schools near you, then confirm voucher participation and current fees with the school itself.
