Proposed 2011 budget to address reforms, shortages in education, Valisno says

MANILA, Philippines – If the Department of Education (DepEd) will have its annual budget doubled, adding another two years in the basic education for a grade 7 and a fifth year is doable, Education Secretary Mona Dumlao-Valisno said.

Valisno said that DepEd even has provisions in their proposed 2011 budget to enable adding the two years in the basic education curriculum reportedly being mulled by the incoming administration of President-elect Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.

“There’s a provision for that in our proposed 2011 budget since we asked for double the 2010 budget of DepEd of more than P170 billion, about P340 billion,” Valisno told The STAR.

Valisno said that only the lack of funds prevents DepEd from pushing through the recommended additional two years in the basic education curriculum, to establish a 12-year basic education curriculum.

Former DepEd secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad, rumored to be the future education secretary of Aquino, said the 12-year education cycle is part of the 10-point agenda proposed by Liberal Party bet and President-elect Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III during the campaign.

The 12-year education plan includes 7 years of elementary education, and five years of secondary high school education.

Abad said the current 10-year basic education cycle in the Philippines is already obsolete since most nations already implement a 12-year education plan.

Big shortage of public high schools

There’s a glaring shortage of public high schools that discourages Filipino children from earning at least a high school diploma.

Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio, said that aside from failing to address resource shortages in public schools, the Department of Education (DepEd) has obviously neglected ensuring an adequate number of public high schools that will accommodate the millions of school children who are able to finish elementary school.

“DepEd’s own statistics show that while we have almost 38,000 public elementary schools, there are only 5,237 public high schools in the whole country,” Tinio said.

“We noted that while there are public elementary schools in many barangays, the public high schools are usually in the urban areas or in the central municipalities, which entails young school children in the barrio to find high schools in the urban areas if they want to pursue high school studies,” Tinio told The STAR.

Tinio said that the government should make a difficult, but necessary effort to make sure that there are enough accessible public high schools for school children in the barrios and barangays in rural areas.

“It’s like they don’t expect the children who graduated from elementary to go to high school,” Tinio said.

Data gathered by the DepEd’s Basic Education Information System estimate the total number of students from the basic education sector, which covers pre-school, elementary and secondary levels, trooping to their respective schools at 24.46 million. Of the huge number of basic education students, 21.05 million are going to public schools. Private schools will absorb about 3.26 million elementary and high school students.

DepEd figures place the number of public schools, including recently established pre-schools set up by DepEd in coordination with the Early Childhood Care and Development Coordinating Council, at a whopping 59,045. DepEd now has 37,967 public elementary schools, 5,237 high schools, and 15,841 pre-schools.

Aside from being responsible for education the more than 21.5 million public school students, about half of the number of private school students are even subsidized by the DepEd through their Government Assistance to Private Education (GASTPE) where students are given P5,000 to P10,000 vouchers or financial support to stay in private schools and prevent their migration to public schools. –Rainier Allan Ronda (The Philippine Star)