DepEd needs P133 billion to improve quality of education

The Department of Education (DepEd) needs at least P133 billion next year to improve the quality of education in the country.

"Until we provide the P133 billion required for us to implement quality programs and projects on a grand scale, the quality of teaching and learning will not improve on the national proportion," Education Undersecretary Ramon Bacani read from a statement during a press conference on Education Week Friday afternoon.

The DepEd was allotted only P119 billion, but Bacani said P124 billion is "required for us to catch up."

The DepEd said that based on per capita spending, the government spends only P6,354 per year on each student. Thailand spends about P47,700 per year on each student while Malaysia spends P56,840.

"The country is only spending 15 percent of what neighboring (Asian) countries are spending for education," Bacani said.

The United States and New Zealand both spend around P123,200 every year per student, while Japan allocates P293,440 per student every year.

The DepEd will observe Education Week from Dec. 5 to 9. This year’s theme is "Beyond the Thresholds of Literacy and Pushing for Excellence in English, Science and Math."

The department said the P119-billion proposed 2006 budget they are defending before the Senate and the House of Representatives is not enough to improve the quality of education in the country, but "just enough to keep in place."

Bacani said this budget is enough to keep up with increases in inflation and the student population, but "will not address all resource shortages nor will it provide for programs and projects that would impact on student performance on a national scale."

He noted that ideally, the DepEd’s budget "should grow as fast as the combination of the inflation rate and population growth," which is about seven percent.

The P119-billion budget, which represents a 6.25-percent increase over last year’s budget of P112 billion, "would still be inadequate to cover the shortages that we have in our school system, which have built up over the years because of the severe budgetary constraints that the national government is experiencing," Bacani said.

He also said this year’s DepEd budget is only 12.35 percent of the P907-billion national budget. The department’s share in the proposed 2006 national budget will be less, at 11.3 percent.

Bacani added that 85 to 90 percent of the DepEd’s proposed budget for 2006 — about P101 billion — goes to pay the salaries of teachers. "That leaves us (with) a very limited flexibility in terms of our budget implementation," he said.

He said the DepEd’s earlier proposed budget of P133 billion, which was disapproved, would have enabled the department to reduce the shortage of school buildings, classrooms and textbooks.

"We should really have a continuous increase in our budget every year, which would allow us to address the shortages, cope with inflation and enrollment growth, and implement quality improvement programs," Bacani added.

He said that during a recent budget hearing, senators were mulling plans to realign some of the items in the national budget and reallocate the funds to the health and education sector.

"If they will give it to us, why not? Based on experience, usually during the budget deliberations, the budget increases," Bacani said.

Some of the funds that may be realigned are those allocated to congressional projects such as the P6 billion for Kilos Asenso and P8 billion for Healing the Wounds of EDSA, he said.

Bacani said other means of improving the quality of education, such as holding double shifts of classes, may not be practical "if the students live in remote areas. There is a tradeoff in terms of instructional time. There is a possibility that the time of the subjects might be lessened," he said.

Bacani said it is important to focus on Education Week by calling attention to the education crisis in the country.

"Sometime last year, (then) secretary Florencio Abad talked about the education crisis. Since that time, we have been undertaking measures to address this. Some of the things we have been undertaking is the Schools First Initiative" which involves improving the school curriculum and training teachers, he said.