A teachers’ group on Friday, Feb. 17, stressed that the education decline in the country cannot be averted for as long as only half of the needed budget is given to address the existing and emerging challenges in the education sector.
The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines, in a statement, pointed out that the call should foremostly be addressed to the top echelons of government, which only give education half of the needed budget.
“How can we traverse the long and difficult road to education recovery with our fuel tank only half full?” said ACT Chairperson Vladimer Quetua in a response to the message of Vice President and Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Sara Duterte message in Davao City on Feb. 16.
In the event, Duterte called on all authorities and learners to give their all to avert the further deterioration of education in the country.
READ:
https://mb.com.ph/2023/02/16/duterte-cites-the-urgent-need-to-avert-deterioration-of-ph-education/
Duterte argued that if those responsible for children’s learning and the learners themselves only give half of their efforts for education, education reforms cannot succeed.
“We say, for as long as the government only provides for half of the needs of education, the learning crisis cannot be averted,” Quetua said.
Citing the Philippine Institute for Domestic Studies, ACT pointed out that from 2010 to 2019, the government has only been spending amounts equating from 2.2 percent to 3.6 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) to education while the United Nations standard for education budget is six percent of the GDP.
For 2023, ACT noted that the total budget for all education agencies only amounts to 3.6 percent of the GDP --- with the DepEd’s budget equivalent to only three percent of the GDP.
“We teachers have for so long been giving it our 200 percent as we shoulder responsibilities that are no longer our duties and spend out-of-pocket to fill in the gaps, just so that education can continue,” Quetua said.
ACT argued that the situation of education in the country will not change with the government only providing for the construction of 6,000 classrooms this year while more than 100,000 or one-third of our existing classrooms are no longer fit for use based on the Basic Education Report (BER) 2023 delivered by Duterte in January.
READ:
https://mb.com.ph/2023/01/30/duterte-cites-lack-of-school-infra-resources-as-most-pressing-issue-pounding-ph-basic-education/
“With the continuing underspending of government in education, we cannot foresee a major change in our situation, much less a significant rebound for education,” Quetua said.
ACT pointed out that Duterte “should first be convincing” the President, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM, and Congress to give it their 100 percent to resolve all the shortages in education facilities and resources.
“The pledge they committed during the Basic Education Report activity should be translated to concrete actions and should not be left as mere photo-ops on the pledge wall,” Quetua said.