PLM exec seeks higher budget for education

Lawyer Adel Tamano, President of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila and newly inducted President of the Association of Local Colleges and Universities (ALCU), yesterday called for an increase in the education budget.

During a press conference and video presentation held at PLM, Tamano pushed for an education-first policy wherein education would be given the highest budgetary priority to make quality learning accessible to the poor and marginalized.

“The highest budgetary priority should be education. We use 56 percent of the budget for debt servicing. While education is only given 16 percent,” Tamano said.

Tamano said Article XIV, Sec. 5 of the Constitution is crystal clear that government is mandated to give the “highest budgetary priority” to education.

“This administration has failed to comply with this constitutional mandate and instead uses more than half of the national budget for debt-servicing while only allocating less than 20 percent for education,” he said.

He said their is a classroom shortage of 45,000 rooms and only six out of 10 school age students will graduate from elementary while. Of the six, only four will graduate from high school. Out of these four, only two will complete their college education.

Tamano demonstrated how well-funded local universities and colleges, such as PLM, could provide high-quality low-cost education.

PLM is fully-funded by the Manila government and its college have been cited as centers of excellence by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and its graduates consistently excel in licensure examinations, most recently by the topping of the Nursing exams by PLM graduate Zandra Mae Bongco.

“PLM is a model that can be followed by other local government units to provide education to Filipinos already beset by economic problems, including the rice and fuel crises,” said Tamano.

He also blamed the low budget allocation for education for the decline of Filipino students’ proficiency in math and science.