DepEd alloted P145-B budget

The Department of Education (DepEd) will get the lion’s share of the proposed P1.227-trillion national budget for 2008 with a P145-billion allocation, an amount that is P3.6-billion higher than the agency’s budget this year, Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. said yesterday.

While the payroll for 500,000 teachers will eat up much of DepEd’s budget, “investments will be made in physical infrastructure, including wired classrooms, and expansion of scholarship slots,” Andaya said.

Part of the budget would go to the construction of 6,000 classrooms next year for new students who will be added to the current 17.4 million students in public schools, Andaya said.

The classrooms will cost P2.9 billion at an average of P476,000 each. Some P920 million will also be allotted to the repair of existing classrooms.

He said funding amounts for new schools could still increase as “all figures are preliminary and are still for Cabinet review and approval.”

The Cabinet will scrutinize the expenditure program before it is submitted to Congress within a month after the President’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) as required by the Constitution.

Under DepEd’s proposed budget for 2008, maintenance and other operating expenses for elementary and high schools will increase from this year’s P5.5 billion to P7.2 billion.

Part of the budget will also go to the purchase of some P260 million worth of computers under the program to outfit schools with Internet connection and other ICT applications, Andaya noted.

This amount, he explained, is on top of what will be spent to make 5,533 school buildings “cyber-education-ready.”

The funding for the DepEd’s two programs, the Educational Voucher System (EVS) and the Education Service Contracting (ESC), which is under the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (GASTPE) program will also be increased, Andaya said.

Under the programs, high school students who can no longer be accommodated in public high schools will be allowed “to take seats” in private high schools.

Both programs will receive a combined P2.5-billion budget, almost five percent higher than this year’s level.

This will bring the number of GASTPE “scholars” to 603,608 next year: 175,304 under EVS and 428,304 under ESC.

For those outside formal schools, Andaya said they can now study via the Alternative Learning System (ALS), which will target 91,291 participants using its proposed P193 million budget.

Special education (SPED) centers will also be given a boost, with its budget increasing to P84 million, he said.