Proposed 2012 budget devotes P14.68B for new classrooms

The Aquino administration is poised to allocate P14.68 billion from the 2012 budget to building 41,381 classrooms next year, according to a statement Thursday by Dasmariñas Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. Barzaga is a member of the House of Representatives Committee on Public Works and Highways. The appropriation is under the proposed P1.816 trillion General Appropriation Act of 2012, which was submitted to the House of Representatives the day after President Benigno Aquino III delivered his State of the Nation Address on July 25. Classroom shortage is a recurring problem in the Philippines. When the new school year opened last June, many public schools reported a dire lack of classrooms, chairs, desks and textbooks.
For the latest Philippine news stories and videos, visit GMANews.TV New teaching positions Most of the funds for the new classrooms will come from the Department of Education (DepEd) allotment, which is allocating P13.68 billion to construct 40,208 classrooms under the School Building Program for Areas with Acute Classroom Shortage. Another P1 billion will be allotted from the Department of Public Works and Highways budget to build another 1,173 new classrooms and buy 56,304 chairs under the Regular School Building Program. Aside from the money to build new classrooms, another P2.879 billion will be used to fill in 13,000 teaching positions in the public school system, the statement read. The DepEd will get P238.8 billion from the 2012 budget, up 15.2 from the P207.3 billion it got this year. “We are hopeful that government’s growing and sustained investment in basic education will enable the country to achieve universal primary schooling by 2015," said Barzaga. DepEd is also set to spend P17.4 billion under the Basic Educational Facilities Fund, a 54 percent increase from this year’s P11.3 billion allotment, P1.155 billion to recondition some 3,850 rundown classrooms, P1.54 billion for 25,667 water and sanitation facilities, and P2.47 million to buy chairs under the School Furniture Program. To address textbook shortages, another P2.625 billion will be spent to secure 45.5 million textbooks and teaching manuals. Funds to subsidize private school tuition will also be increased to P6.286 billion from P5.83 billion. Under the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education, DepEd spends between P5,000 to P10,000 per student yearly so that private schools may receive students who can no longer enroll in public schools due to insufficient resources. Development goals Last May, the Department of Budget and Management released P7 billion from 2010’s P11.29 billion budget for basic education facilities to construct and repair over 8,997 classrooms. http://www.gmanews.tv/story/220185/nation/dbm-releases-p7b-to-build-repair-classrooms Meanwhile, in late June, the Management Association of the Philippines recommended that the Aquino administration build over 200,000 new classrooms for 2012 and 2013. The group recommended using money from the Special Education Fund taxes, and urged lawmakers to allow 30 percent of their “pork barrel" money to help construct 9,300 new classrooms. According to the statement, the increase in basic education funds are part of the country’s commitment to the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals, particularly to “ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling." — BC/VS, GMA News