‘Proposed P170B DepEd budget is Arroyo’s legacy of abandonment’

Kabataan Party-list Representative Raymond “Mong” Palatino today said that the proposed P170.85 billion budget forn the Department of Education allots a poorly P6 for every student.

DepEd’s operating budget actually decreased by 1 percent, Maintenance and Operating Expenses  by 2% and Capital Outlay by 29%. “DepEd itself admitted that the slash in CO budget will affect flagship projects and routine uses of funds like construction of schools, classrooms, etc.,” Palatino said

“This is preposterous, P6 per student is an injustice. It is not even enough for a one-way fare, even at a student’s discount rate,” said Palatino.

The proposed 2010 budget for DepEd is only 2.8 percent of the country’s GDP. Palatino cited the prescription of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 6 percent of a country’s gross domestic product (GDP) should be allotted for education.

“Next year’s budget is insufficient to address the education sector’s chronic problem-shortages. Rooms have remained overcrowded, teachers inadequate, and seats and textbooks either lacking or in dire need of repair or corrections. 2010 is a critical year for education especially since it marks the final stretch of the Education For All (EFA) by 2015 World Declaration,” Palatino said.

Palatino said the performance of the government with respect to achieving EFA in all aspects-access, quality, and outputs-”leaves a lot to be desired.” “The government continues to prescribe flawed solutions to address these shortages. For instance, DepEd’s recent move to shorten classes to four or five ‘learning’ hours will only worsen the already poor quality of basic education,” Palatino said.

Palatino also said the education crisis due to government misprioritization and poor education spending is even aggravated by rampant graft and corruption. “DepEd’s distribution of erroneous textbooks, questionable bidding processes, and overpriced procurements have took up a huge bulk of the agency’s meager budget last year at the expense of our students,” he said.

The young solon said that he would continue to lobby for a higher budget for the DepEd “but the agency would have to answer its involvement in unresolved corruption cases.” “We want to ensure that the DepEd’s funds would really go to students and the improvement of the basic education sector.” ###