According to Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Amenah Pangandaman, the 3.3% increase in the proposed 2024 budget allocation fiscal year 2024 for the education sector is due to the higher provisions for subsidies, facilities, learning materials, and skills training programs especially now that the five-day in-person classes are being implemented to 99.5% in the public schools.
The Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act (UAQTE) Program has the highest budget for subsidies for students with a P51.1 billion allocation. Education Assistance is given P41.0 billion wherein, 39.3 billion goes to DepEds' education service contracting, junior high school and senior high school (SHS) voucher program, and joint delivery voucher program for SHS technical vocational livelihood specialization. CHED's Student Financial Assistance Program has also been alloted a P1.5 billion budget while, P200 million is allocated for TESDA's Private Education Student Financial Assistant Program. Addionationally, alternative learning system (ALS) will receive P632 million to support the education, employment, and entrepreneurship program for out-of-school youth aged 15 years old and above who lack formal education.
As the resumption of face-to-face classes and the onslaught of typhoons and other natural disasters, learning environment for students will also be upgraded such as the construction of 7,879 new classrooms and technical vocational laboratories, repair and rehabilitation of 10,050 classrooms, procurement of 21,557 sets of school desks, furnitures, and fixtures, electrification of 432 classrooms, and etc., through the Basic Education Facilities (BEF) program this is to ensure that students will have a proper and conducive learning environment.
To assist and for effective learning process of the students, purchase of learning tools and equipments such as textbooks and instructional kits aligned with the new curriculum for kinder and grades 1, 4, and 7, science and mathematics equipment and technical vocational and livelihood equipment, e-Learning cart packages, laptops and etc., are part of the programs allocated for education.
The Government Internship Program (GIP), Special Program for Employment of Students (SPES), JobStart Philippines, and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) supporting innovation in the Philippine technical and vocational education training system are among the others special employment programs allocated with budget to help equip the student with the appropriate and necessary skills and training for their employment.
Despite all the programs being mentioned, with poor nutrition, the children's learning capacity and reception will also be poor. This will affect the success of the programs and in addressing the education problem. There is a need to address the children's nutrition hence, P11.71 billion is allocated for the school-based feeding program and others.
Education is the country's top priority as mandated by the constitution and with the increasing demand for quality education and to be globally competitive, higher provision for these areas is right and just. (DBM/PIA-Caraga)