The Free Public Secondary Education Act (Republic Act No. 6655)
“An Act Establishing and Providing for a Free Public Secondary Education and for Other Purposes” Signed into law: 26 May 1988 — took effect on 10 June 1988
1. Constitutional and Policy Foundations
Article XIV, §2(2) of the 1987 Constitution commands the State to “establish and maintain a system of free public secondary education.” R.A. 6655 is the direct legislative answer to that mandate. Its passage in 1988 completed the “ladder” that began with free elementary schooling (already mandated by law and practice since the 1950s) and—almost three decades later—would culminate in free tertiary tuition under R.A. 10931 (2017).
Legislative history in brief
| Milestone | Date/Body | Key points |
|---|---|---|
| First filed as HB 2333 | House of Representatives, Aug 1987 | Sponsored by Reps. Lagman, Javellana, et al. |
| Senate counterpart SB 330 | Senate, Oct 1987 | Sponsored by Sen. Angara (then Senate education chair) |
| Bicameral conference committee | Apr 1988 | Unified text adopted the House title and Senate funding safeguards |
| Approval & signing | 26 May 1988 | President Corazon C. Aquino, post-EDSA education priority |
2. Salient Provisions of R.A. 6655
| Section | Substance | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| §3 | Coverage. Free tuition and all other school fees in “national, provincial, city, municipal and barangay high schools,” beginning S.Y. 1988-1989. | Applies equally to general, technical-vocational, fishery, agricultural and science high schools. |
| §4 | Prohibition. No collection of tuition, matriculation, library, laboratory, guidance, athletic, medical, testing, or any other fee as a condition for admission or retention. | “Voluntary contributions” remain lawful if genuinely voluntary and unlinked to student sanctions. |
| §5 | Special fees for school publications, SPCAs, alumni dues, etc. may be allowed only under uniform guidelines of the DECS Secretary and after consultation with parents/students. | |
| §6 | Financing. Appropriations are to be itemized annually in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) and released directly to the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS, now DepEd). | |
| §7 | Implementing rules. The DECS Secretary was directed to promulgate implementing rules and regulations (IRR) within sixty (60) days. |
Key implementing issuances
- DECS Order No. 65-S-1990 — first comprehensive IRR, clarified that “graduation expenses” must be voluntary and that the “no collection” rule applies the whole school year, not just at enrolment.
- DepEd Order No. 19-S-2008 — reiterated the absolute bar on “non-voluntary” fees and prescribed ceilings for authorized collections by Parents–Teachers Associations.
- DepEd Order No. 41-S-2012 — prohibited any fee collection in June and July and capped PTA fees at ₱250 per learner per year.
3. Interface with Related Statutes
| Related law | Link to R.A. 6655 |
|---|---|
| R.A. 8545 (GASTPE, 1998) | Complements free public secondary schooling with tuition subsidy for private-school enrolees through the Education Service Contracting (ESC) and Teachers’ Salary Subsidy (TSS) schemes. |
| R.A. 9155 (Governance of Basic Education Act, 2001) | Re-organized DECS into DepEd and decentralized implementation of R.A. 6655 to school and division offices. |
| R.A. 10533 (Enhanced Basic Education or “K-to-12” Law, 2013) | Retained the guarantee of free tuition in Grades 7-10 and extended it to the two additional senior-high-school years (Grades 11-12) via public-funded “voucher” support. |
| R.A. 10931 (Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, 2017) | Emulated R.A. 6655’s funding architecture in the state-university/college (SUC) context. |
4. Significant Jurisprudence
While R.A. 6655 has never been directly challenged for constitutionality, the Supreme Court has invoked it repeatedly in fiscal-audit and budget-allocation disputes.
| Case | G.R. No. / Date | R.A. 6655 take-away |
|---|---|---|
| Philippine Constitution Association (PHILCONSA) v. Enriquez | G.R. No. 113105, 19 Aug 1994 | Upheld the 1994 GAA item “Free Public Secondary Education Fund” as a valid line-item appropriation precisely to execute R.A. 6655 and Art. XIV §2(2). |
| DECS v. Commission on Audit | G.R. No. 109405, 12 Apr 2000 | Sustained COA disallowance of “registration fees” labeled as “PTA donations”; the Court held that §4 of R.A. 6655 bars any compulsory fee, whatever its label. |
| COA v. DepEd (Regional Office XI) | G.R. No. 194675, 18 Mar 2015 | Audit disallowance of the so-called “Miscellaneous and Other Fees” (MOF) collected by a public high school was affirmed; collections violated the no-fee mandate of §4. |
| DepEd v. COA | G.R. No. 208019, 02 Jul 2019 | Reiterated that public-secondary principals cannot rely on local PTA resolutions to collect building or graduation fees; only DepEd-wide guidelines issued under §5 are controlling. |
Notes on lower-court and administrative rulings
- COA Decision No. 2005-143 (re: Bukidnon NHS) and DepEd-COA Joint Circular No. 1-S-2005 are often cited in division and regional audits.
- Ombudsman cases for “extortion” and “grave misconduct” have resulted in teacher/principal dismissals where forced collections violated R.A. 6655.
5. Fiscal Architecture and Budget Trends
Appropriations. From an initial ₱3.97 billion in 1988 (≈10 % of total DepEd budget), the Free Secondary Education Program’s line item has grown to roughly ₱139 billion in GAA 2025, now embedded in the “Basic Education Facilities and Operations” cluster.
Automatic appropriations? Unlike R.A. 10931, R.A. 6655 does not create an automatic and standing appropriation. Congress must still vote annually, although jurisprudence treats the program as a mandatory constitutional priority.
Actual cost drivers. ~80 % of the item goes to teacher salaries; the rest covers maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE), Learning Resources, and new-school construction—indispensable because tuition abolition quickly doubled enrolment (Net Enrolment Rate rose from 57 % in 1987 to 87 % by 1998).
6. Continuing Implementation Issues
| Issue | Description | Current mitigation |
|---|---|---|
| “Hidden” fees | Graduation, JS prom, “club membership,” and “project” fees periodically re-emerge. | DepEd Orders 65-90, 19-08, and 41-12 reiterate punitive measures; COA conducts annual random audits. |
| Infrastructure backlog | Free schooling spiked enrolment faster than classroom-building pace. | Multi-year School Building Program (SBP) in GAAs; PPP-for-school-infrastructure (PSIP I & II). |
| Equity across regions | Urban poor still shoulder indirect costs (transport, uniforms, learning devices). | Conditional Cash Transfer (4Ps) education grants now cover Grades 7-12; free school-based feeding and SHS voucher for private/LSBE enrolment. |
| Overlap with K-to-12 senior high funding | Voucher program in Grades 11-12 blurs fiscal boundaries. | DepEd/DBM budget tagging distinguishes “JHS Tuition Sub-Programme” (R.A. 6655 core) from “SHS Voucher Sub-Programme.” |
7. Reform Proposals on the Table
- Convert R.A. 6655 into a permanent special fund (similar to R.A. 10931) to insulate appropriations from annual cuts.
- Legislate a national standard for “voluntary contributions” — cap, collection window, consent mechanism, and defined penalties for violators.
- Strengthen COA-DepEd data sharing so audit alerts on unlawful collections trigger automatic administrative probes.
- Integrate digital-device subsidy into the definition of “free” secondary schooling, recognising that the learning modality is now hybrid-digital by default (post-COVID DepEd Basic Education Learning Continuity Plan).
- Statutory clarity on LGU co-share in operating locally established public high schools, to reduce dependence on the national budget and avert salary delays for LGU-paid teachers.
8. Conclusion
Republic Act No. 6655 operationalised a self-executing command of the 1987 Constitution and dramatically expanded access to secondary education. In 35 years of implementation the statute has survived every audit, budget challenge, and policy transition—from decentralisation under R.A. 9155 to the K-to-12 overhaul and, most recently, full digitalisation of basic-education delivery. The Supreme Court’s steady line of cases has kept its core promise uncompromised: no Filipino learner in a public secondary school may be asked to pay tuition or any compulsory fee, however named.
The next frontier is qualitative: ensuring that free also means equitable and transformative—that every child not only steps into a tuition-free classroom but also graduates equipped for higher learning, decent work, and civic life.