Dep-Ed’s 2013 budget reflects CSO engagement

MANILA, Philippines – The education sector in 2012 received the highest allocation from the national budget intended to improve the quality of education through the provision of more and better infrastructure. This strategy resulted in the significant increase of classrooms, chairs, and books.

However, the budget allocation for the education sector is focused only on formal education. It is unable to address the needs of other educational and learning settings, such as the Alternative Learning System and the Accreditation and Equivalency Program that cater to out-of-school youths (OSY), and those unable to attend formal education.

Ineffective allocation, geographic inequalities, and inefficient spending of the budget are still prevalent despite incremental increases in the education budget.

To address these problems, the Department of Budget and Management required government agencies, including the Department of Education (DepEd), to partner with civil society organizations (CSO’s) in creating their budgets for fiscal year 2013.

PBEd’s participation in budget preparation

Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) was one of the CSOs that responded and engaged with the Department of Education (DepEd). PBEd gave inputs and recommendations to enhance transparency, accountability and efficiency in Dep-Ed’s preparation and utilization of the budget.

PBEd made several recommendations on the national budget geared towards improving the quality of and widening access to education. Specifically, these are the following recommendations:

▪ Invest in personal and professional development of teachers through training and scholarship programs

▪ Provide comprehensive welfare assistance for teachers which includes an adequate medical program

▪ Increase allocation for teacher items to achieve the ideal pupil-teacher ratio

▪ Increase the operational funds of schools

▪ Increase allocation per learner for the Alternative Learning System to increase participation of OSY’s and address high rate of illiteracy in the country

▪ Expand the contracting system and create effective accreditation and evaluation systems to ensure delivery of quality education

▪ Increase budget allocation for a national literacy campaign

▪ Increase the production of learning modules and curriculum development for indigenous people who have no formal education

▪ Strengthen disaster preparedness and risk reduction education in disaster-prone areas

The DepEd incorporated these proposals into their programs and projects for 2013. Although not all were reflected in the 2013 General Appropriations Act, a few were incorporated.

This is a concrete example of civil society working constructively with government agencies. Both PBEd and DepEd have agreed on a continued partnership especially in evaluating practices in the allocation and use of the budget.

PBEd believes that the collaboration of civil society and government can make the task of promoting quality education for all less daunting. – Rappler.com