DepEd wants P12.4B budget for classrooms

MANILA, Philippines—The Department of Education is seeking a P12.4-billion budget next year for the construction of new classrooms as government aims to fully address the shortage in two years.

Francisco Varela, Education Undersecretary for Finance and Administration, said DepEd has requested a higher school infrastructure budget for 2012, higher by P1.1 billion from this year’s budget. DepEd’s current P11.3 billion budget is programmed for the construction of some 11,000 classrooms this year.

“This is a significant increase of the DepEd budget, from P6.1 billion in 2010. And even in the past, the budget for classroom construction has been growing by 2.5 to 5 percent.  This is a signal of the Aquino administration’s  strong resolve to address the classroom backlog.

Varela said DepEd also sought a separate P5 billion as a seed fund to be amortized over five years for the construction of up to P30 billion worth of classrooms through public-private partnerships.

DepEd has to address a shortage of up to 60,000 classrooms to reach the ideal classroom-student ratio of one to 45.  The department has also secured some P1 billion worth of pledges from local government units in a co-funding scheme to construct new classrooms.