Tanco group-led STI Holdings, one of the country’s biggest private school network operators, is opening four new campuses in Luzon, positioning itself for higher enrollment of tertiary and senior high school students.
The new campuses—STI Lipa (Batangas), STI San Jose Del Monte (Bulacan), STI Sta. Mesa (Manila) and STI Pasay-Edsa—are now accepting tertiary and senior high school students for the first semester of school year 2019-2020, STI said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.
Construction works at STI San Jose del Monte were completed in March while brand new buildings in STI Sta. Mesa and STI Pasay-Edsa have also been substantially completed.
STI Lipa started operations in its new building in August 2018, specifically from the ground up to the fourth floor. The remaining works from the fifth floor up to the roof-deck and the basketball gymnasium at the seventh floor were completed last March.
With this expansion program, STI reported that its assets hit P14.8 billion for the fiscal year that ended in March, compared to a year-ago’s P14.4 billion.
A total of 85,797 students were enrolled in schools owned by STI Holdings for academic year 2018-2019. Of these, 43,202 students were enrolled in Center for Higher Education (CHEd) programs, 40,752 in Department of Education programs, mostly in senior high school and 1,843 enrolled in short-term vocational courses accredited by Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda),
STI Holdings’ fiscal year ends on March 31 in line with the academic cycle that starts in June and ends in March.
Catering to Grade 12 graduates who will pursue their tertiary education, STI accepted two freshmen batches in schoolyear 2018-2019. Classes for the first batch started in June 2018 while classes for the second batch started in August 2018. The implementation of two college freshmen batches aims to accommodate late enrollees.
A surge in late enrollees was expected among students who waited for acceptance by government-run colleges and universities in anticipation of the free college education under the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act.
STI said it intended to eventually align its school calendar with that of other public and private college and universities in the Philippines and the rest of Southeast Asian.