Youth group hits DepEd's plan for privately-run public schools

The youth group ANAKBAYAN said Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Bro. Armin Luistro's proposal for privately-run public schools was an "elitist framework" towards education and other social services. In a statement issued on Monday, ANAKBAYAN said the proposal, which falls under the Aquino administration's private-public partnership program (PPP), is a "sell-out" because it will allow the government to "further abandon" its responsibility to fund education. "The constitution mandates that the government provide free and quality education for all. Turning this responsibility over to the private sector and refusing to provide sufficient funding for education for its people is a criminal offense," said ANAKBAYAN national chairperson Vencer Crisostomo. Addressing lack of resources In a text messages sent to GMA News Online, Luistro said the proposal for privately-run public schools will still be subject to analysis and program design. "DepEd is looking at different arrangements or modes in delivery of services to allow us to be more effective in delivering our mandate. There are models in other countries that are worth looking into," he said. "DepEd has to be open-minded about these possibilities to address lack of resources and quality," he added." Last week, Luistro said the DepEd is considering a type of PPP where a private foundation or group will run one public school. When implemented, the PPP proposal for DepEd will help fund public schools that do not have enough resources for additional faculty members and classrooms. Luistro said an enabling law would be needed to implement the proposal. Higher tuition fees However, Crisostomo said the PPP proposal of the DepEd can lead to higher tuition fees, making education further inaccessible to the majority of Filipinos who are poor. Instead of a private-public partnership, the DepEd should instead provide sufficient budgetary allocation to education and social services. "The P238.8 billion budget of DepEd for 2012 is grossly inadequate to (fill up) the needs of basic education, considering that they want to implement additional years," Crisostomo said. He added that computation of real per capita value of government spending on basic and secondary education shows that the government only spends less than P7 per Filipino per day for education. "A budget of this amount will not even be enough to buy chalk," he said. Re-channelling of funds Meanwhile, ANAKBAYAN called for the re-channelling of funds from debt, military, pork barrel, and the conditional cash transfer program to the education sector. "This year, for instance, the government intends to spend P1.9 billion on 'universal kinder.' Upon computation, P18 billion is needed to fund new teaching positions for the 2.3 million expected kinder enrollees," Crisostomo said. "The government aims to get 13,o00 new teaching positions when the shortage is 103,000. About 15,000 new classrooms will be built to cover 152,000 in shortage." "This illustrates clearly the lack of funding and prioritization for education," he said. - VVP, GMA News