The Philippines has one of the largestpublic-private partnership programs in education in theworld, serving more than 567,500 students who representalmost 9 percent of the 6.5 million high school students in2009. The Government of the Philippines explicitlyrecognizes the complementary roles played by public andprivate schools in the education system. The EducationService Contracting (ESC) program aims to increase access toquality basic education at the secondary level by extendingfinancial assistance from the public budget to 'poorbut deserving' elementary school graduates to attendprivate high schools that have contracted with thegovernment. The ESC program improves school quality,relieves congestion in public high schools, maintains thefinancial viability of private secondary schools (more thanone-third of private secondary school enrollments aresupported by the program), keeps the overall costs of publicsecondary education in check, and encourages households toinvest in education.