DepEd guarantees allocation for textbooks, teachers, and classrooms

Post date: Sep 28, 2010 6:36:38 AM

Written by Communications Unit, Office of the Secretary, Department of Education

Friday, 23 November 2007

By allocating a total of P24.3 Billion from 2006 to 2008, the Department of Education (DepEd) has increased the budget for the purchase of textbooks, hiring of teachers and construction of classrooms to address resource gaps in public schools.

"Providing enough classrooms and textbooks – most importantly teachers – still is and has always been the department's top priority," DepEd Secretary Jesli Lapus said.

To meet the 1:45 teacher-student ratio target in 2007, DepEd allocated P2.1 Billion for hiring of new 16, 390 Teacher 1 items. Teacher 1 is the first level in the educational career ladder, and teachers under this level have basic teaching experience. For 2008, 10,472 more teacher 1 items are set for hiring to further improve the teacher-student ratio.

In addition, allocation for the construction of school buildings increased from P3 Billion in 2006 to P5.4 billion in 2007. In 2008, budget was further increased to P5.8 billion. In 2007, 6,132 classrooms were targeted to be constructed and 12, 400 classrooms repaired. In 2008, 10,472 more classrooms will be constructed. The lack of classrooms is also managed by holding double shifts where there is excess student population especially in the urban areas, primarily due to in-migration.

Meanwhile, DepEd is in the process of upgrading the quality and increasing the quantity of textbooks per subject each year. In 2006, P1.8 billion was used to procure Social Studies textbooks to replace existing ones. Allocation was further increased to P2.1 billion for 2007 to replace all English textbooks and the same amount for 2008 to replace all Science textbooks. In all from 2006 to 2008, a total of P6 billion had been earmarked to not only improve quality of textbooks, but also to meet the ideal textbook-student ratio of 1:1.

DepEd, under the present leadership, has apportioned an average of P5.5 billion for Teacher 1 items, school buildings and textbooks.

"This speaks of the magnitude of our efforts to bring the needed resources to our public schools," Lapus stressed. "Making our students competitive and well-equipped requires substantial investments in education," he added.