Education sector gets raise in 2010 national budget

THE Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said the government raised its allocation for education next year, adding the sector would get nearly half the budget set aside for social services.

In a statement, Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya said the government plans to spend P235.2 billion for education next year or P13 billion more than this year.

He said the education sector, which also covers culture and manpower, will get almost half of the P480 billion allocated for social services in the 2010 spending bill.

The Development and Budget Coordinating Committee (DBCC) had proposed a P1.541-trillion budget for the national government for next year.

This is 8-percent higher than this year’s P1.426 trillion appropriation.

Andaya said the proposed 2010 budget was in line with the goal of reducing the fiscal deficit to 2.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) from the projected 3.2 percent this year.

An indicator of economic performance, GDP is the amount of final goods and services produced in a country, while the deficit-to-GDP ratio is a key measure of how long a government can sustain revenue shortfalls.

Andaya said the Department of Education (DepEd), the government’s biggest agency, will account for P170.85 billion of the sector’s outlay.

The 112 state universities and colleges will receive P21.1 billion, while the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority will receive P3.15 billion.

The DepEd schoolbuilding fund, which is booked as a separate entry in the national budget, will receive P2 billion, the same as this year’s allocation.

According to Andaya, the total budget for the construction of classrooms was P5.8 billion because the bulk of the funds was “embedded” in the DepEd budget.

“To include money for repair of school facilities, the total repair and construction fund for public elementary and high schools is actually more than P6 billion,” he said.

The Department of Science and Technology, the Philippine Science High School and the Science Education Institute will get P404.6 million and P419.3 million, respectively.

Andaya said the budgets of the agencies in the education sector are higher because of the segregation of fund requirements for next year’s salary increase of government employees.

Malacañang has also allocated P68.4 billion for the second-year implementation of the pay hikes authorized in the Salary Standardization Law 3 (SSL 3), which took effect in July and benefited 1.139-million national government workers.

Of the amount, P44.44 billion will be used to fund the 2010 requirement of the first installment of the SSL 3, while the P23.94 billion will be used to guarantee the second tranche in July next year.

“We have already set aside money for the salary increase of government workers. Any news of its delay or ditching is pure speculation. So by July next year, the second round of increases will be in their pay envelopes,” Andaya said.

The SSL 3 is a four-year plan beginning 2009 to adjust public sector pay through higher rates in the 33-bracket government pay scale. –Lailany P. Gomez, Reporter, Manila Times