Sara Duterte told: Teachers give 200% effort, scarce budget stalls PH education reform

FILE PHOTO: Teacher Jermaine San Agustin teaches biology in Taguig City to 12th graders both in school and at home. —INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA Philippines — The current learning crisis in the Philippines cannot be resolved if the government only allocates half of the required budget to support the education sector.

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) raised this point on Friday, in response to the statement of  Vice President and Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Sara Duterte that education reforms cannot succeed if students and authorities give only half of their efforts to learning.

The group likewise emphasized that teachers have been giving “their 200%” in their work, even taking on additional responsibilities that are outside the scope of their duties as educators, and would also at times spend their own money to fill in gaps in the current educational system.

“We say, for as long as the government only provides for half of the needs of education, the learning crisis cannot be averted,” asserted ACT chairperson Vladimer Quetua in a statement.

According to him, the total budget for the education sector this year was only 3.6% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) when the United Nations had said a country’s funding for education should be 6 percent of the national GDP.

From 2010-2019, the Philippine government’s allocations to its education agencies were only 2.2 percent to 3.6 percent of the country’s GDP, the teachers’ group noted.

“How can we traverse the long and difficult road to education recovery with our fuel tank only half full?” asked Quetua.

“How will our situation change when the government only provided for the construction of 6,000 classrooms this year while more than 100,000 or one-third of our existing classrooms are no longer fit for use, based on Sec. Duterte’s Basic Education Report?” Quetua further asked.

“With the continuing underspending of the government in education, we cannot foresee a major change in our situation, much less a significant rebound for education,” he added.

Quetua urged Duterte to convince President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., as well as Congress, and the Department of Budget and Management, to “give their 100%to resolve shortages in education facilities and resources.”

He stressed that it’s time for them to walk the talk and turn their pledges into concrete actions.  — Vance Chan, trainee

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