Valenzuela City Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian. FILE PHOTO
Legislators have asked the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) to explain how it plans to use its proposed P29-billion transition fund for teachers who will be affected by the transition to the K to 12 basic education curriculum.
Valenzuela Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian said the CHEd had requested the special funding without giving details on how the money would be spent.
“Congress needs to know exactly where the money will go. The CHEd has yet to give the breakdown of the P29-billion fund,” said Gatchalian, who sits on the House committees on basic education and culture and on higher and technical education.
Salary cuts
News reports have quoted CHEd Commissioner Maria Cynthia Bautista as saying that the transition fund would support college faculty members and personnel who will be getting salary cuts or who will be laid off due to the decreased college enrollment during the K to 12 transition years beginning in 2016.
The CHEd wants Congress to approve the transition fund by October this year.
The K to 12 (Kindergarten to Grade 12) reform program will revise the basic education curriculum by adding Kindergarten and two senior high school years (Grades 11 and 12) to the previous 10-year curriculum.
Grade 11 will be ushered in in June 2016 and Grade 12 in June 2017.
Transparency
While reiterating his support for K to 12 reform, saying its benefits will outweigh the costs, Gatchalian said the CHEd should disclose the details of its proposed transition fund in the light of fears of mass layoffs of college faculty and personnel.
“The CHEd has to be transparent about the use of the fund so we in Congress can scrutinize it. More than 55,000 teachers and another 23,000 nonteaching personnel will lose their jobs and this will translate to a financial loss for their respective families,” he said.
Gatchalian said that according to House Bill No. 5493, the “Tertiary Education and Transition Fund of 2015,” the fund will be sourced from the government’s Higher Education Development Fund, from state universities and colleges, from taxes collected from higher education institutions and private donations. Dona Z. Pazzibugan