DepEd gets P7-B budget for classroom construction, repair

The Department of Budget Management (DBM) has given the Department of Education (DepEd) a P7-million budget for the construction and repair of classrooms nationwide. A statement released on Monday said the DBM has approved the budget that would fund the project for the benefit of 404,865 students throughout the country. The target number of beneficiaries was based on 1:45 classroom-student ratio. Around 8,997 classrooms are expected to be built and repaired in elementary and secondary schools with the said budget. “Education is the central strategy of the Aquino administration for investing in the people and enhancing the youth’s opportunity to gain meaningful employment. With this, we commit to ensure the funding needed to address critical gaps in basic education," DBM Secretary Florencio Abad said. National Capital Region, with an estimated 32,400 student beneficiaries, will get the biggest share with more than P1 billion. Region IV-A (CALABARZON), on the other hand, will receive P841 million while Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), which has the highest number of target student beneficiaries (43,695), will get P660-million. The remaining portion of the budget will be divided among regions as follows: Region I: P187M Region II: P176 M Region III: P432 M Region IV-B: P276 M Region V: P 450M Region VI: P 281M Region VII: P 562M Region VIII: P457M Region IX: P284M Region X: P325M Region XI: P302M Region XII: P353M CARAGA: P239M CAR: P146M In 2011, the budget of the education department was increased by P32.3 billion to P207.3 billion, the largest increase it had in more than a decade, Abad said. He added that the increase was made to fund the construction of classrooms, hiring of teachers, purchase of textbooks, and other educational activities. DepEd's latest statistics of classroom-student ratio stands at 1:36 for elementary schools and 1:38 for high schools. To accommodate more students, DepEd uses two-shift scheme, with an average of 60 students, divided between morning and afternoon shifts,sharing a single classroom. - VVP, GMA News