Malacañang allocated over P76 billion for various projects and programs, as the Aquino administration steps up spending to improve the quality of education in the country.
Palace Communications Secretary Herminio B. Coloma Jr. reported on Sunday that, for this year, the government set aside at least P10 billion for the hiring of additional 39,000 teachers and creation of 1,500 nonteaching positions to fill up the shortage of teachers and their counterparts in state-run schools.
Coloma said the Department of Budget and Management is also releasing P3.5 billion to buy and distribute 70.5 million textbooks and other instructional materials to public-school students.
In addition, the secretary said the government appropriated “not less than P54 billion” for the construction of 31,728 new classrooms and repair of 9,500 others.
Moreover, he said, part of the P54-billion funding will be spent for the improvement of 13,586 water and sanitation facilities like toilets, as well as 455 technical-vocational laboratories and 1.3 million school desks.
Aside from that, Coloma noted that the Department of Education (DepEd) is also setting aside another P8.5 billion to buy over 24,000 “information and communication technology [ICT] packages” and set up multimedia laboratories in public high schools, as well as computer laboratories complete with basic multimedia equipment in elementary schools under the DepEd’s computerization program.
The Palace official confirmed that under the 2015 national budget, the Aquino administration gave the DepEd its biggest allocation amounting to P367.1 billion, which, Coloma noted, is 19 percent higher than the P309.5-billion funding the DepEd got in 2014.
The government also increased by 17 percent the budget allocated to state colleges and universities to P44 billion, Coloma added.
Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad said the funding for the reconstruction of destroyed public elementary and high-school buildings under the Build Back Better Program for Supertyphoon Yolanda-affected areas is the highest priority allocation from the DepEd’s annual allocation.
He said the amount is allotted for the Basic Education Facilities of the overall budget of the DepEd for 2015. It covers the construction of 31,728 classrooms for public schools in the affected provinces in the Visayas, as well as the repair of 9,500 more classrooms.
“The amount also cover the construction of 13, 586 water and sanitation facilities, 455 technical and vocational laboratories and the procurement of 1.3 million seats,” Abad said in a statement over the weekend.
The budget chief said besides the Build Back Better Program, the administration also focuses on meeting the government’s commitment in the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 of eradicating poverty by giving access to education, as well as free health and social services.
He said the DepEd’s annual allocation also includes programs that give access to formal education to the marginalized youth, particularly young Muslims in conflict-affected Mindanao, children of indigenous families, as well as out-of-school youth.