Prioritize quality education over 'surveillance, intelligence', DepEd told
A group of education workers on Tuesday, Aug. 8, urged the Department of Education (DepEd) to prioritize initiatives that would address the learning crisis in the education sector.

This after the DepEd requested P150 million in confidential funds under its proposed 2024 budget of P758.59 billion.
For the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines, DepEd’s request for millions in confidential funds is “questionable and undeniably a misappropriation.”
ACT also reminded DepEd that its mandate is to “promote and protect the constitutional right of every Filipino to quality education.”
The group underlined that DepEd is “not in any way part of the security cluster hence its justification in requesting for confidential funds for surveillance and intelligence is undemocratic and repressive.”
ACT Chairperson Vladimer Quetua pointed out that DepEd, under the leadership of Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte, should focus on the learning crisis and address the shortage in basic education resources such as classrooms, teachers, and learning materials --- among others.
Duterte, on the sidelines of the 2023 Brigada Eskwela national launch on Aug. 7, defended DepEd’s request for confidential funds noting that “education is intertwined with national security.”
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Meanwhile, ACT urged Congress to prioritize the urgent and legitimate needs of the education sector.
The deliberation for the 2024 budget begins on Aug. 10.
The DepEd budget deliberation will be on Aug. 30, a day after classes in public schools for SY 2023-2023 officially start.
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https://mb.com.ph/2023/8/3/classes-in-public-schools-for-sy-2023-2024-to-start-on-aug-29-dep-ed