STI Education Services Group (STI-ESG) said Monday it ended operations 12 of its schools due to low enrollment caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
In a disclosure to the stock exchange, the school network, which is a subsidiary of listed STI Education Systems Holdings Inc., said it suspended the operations of five company-owned schools for school year 2020-2021: STI Cebu, STI Iloilo, STI Quezon Ave., STI Tuguegarao, and STI Pagadian.
An additional six franchise-owned schools have also suspended operations also due to low enrollment and low market potential in their respective areas: STI College Bohol, STI College Recto, Sungold Technologies, STI College Pasay, STI College Dipolog and STI College San Francisco.
A seventh franchise owned school, STI College Parañaque, also suspended its operations for school year 2020-2021.
Students enrolled in the affected schools are being given the option to transfer to other STI schools, STI ESG said.
The news was first reported by Manila Standard, which STI-ESH confirmed in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.
"STI ESG determined that continuing the operations of these schools was no longer viable due to low enrollment turnout and the high cost of facility rental," STI ESG said.
"The suspension and cessation of operations of the STI schools mentioned above will not have a material financial impact on the corporation since most of the affected students will be transferred to other STI schools and the savings on costs outweigh the revenues to be received," the company said.
As of the end of 2019, STI ESG had a network of 76 schools, 38 of them company-owned and 38 franchised.
Besides offering a senior high school program, the STI network offers degree programs in information technology, business and management, tourism, computer engineering, accountancy, communications and multimedia arts, among others.