Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 15) — Instead of investing in more public schools and hiring more teachers, a lawmaker on Thursday urged the Department of Education to provide compensation for additional enrollment in private schools to boost their operations amid the crisis.
During the budget deliberation on the ₱606-billion budget of the agency for 2021, Baguio Rep. Mark Go said allocations could instead shift to providing aid to private schools, especially those that have shut down or scaled down oprations, to allow them to accommodate potential enrollees.
“Instead of putting up additional buildings, adding more people, paying more salaries and benefits, [let us] just support private schools by compensating them per student na mag-eenroll (who wishes to enroll),” he said.
“Every year, our population in DepEd is increasing — number of students, number of teachers, more buildings are built, and we have added our incremental costs as cause of this,” Go said.
“Kung alam natin ang incremental cost for each student, we can utilize this fund, it can be a coupon that will be given to students, we can encourage them to study in different private schools…and jut allocate the budget that will be [needed] for a fiscal year,” the lawmaker added.
Citing DepEd data, Go said that of the 24 million enrollees, over 398,700 private school students have transferred to public schools this year.
Negros Oriental Rep. Jocelyn Limkaichong, who stood as sponsor of the DepEd’s proposed budget, noted that the per capita cost for each public elementary school learner is at ₱1,092 per school year; ₱1,483 for each junior high school student; and ₱1,864 for each senior high school student.
Limkaichong added that DepEd currently grants ₱18,000 worth of salary subsidy for select private school teachers and up to ₱22,500 voucher amount for select students through the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education or GASTPE program, its current way of decongesting public schools.
The DepEd initially proposed a ₱1 trillion budget for next year, but only ₱606-billion was granted by the Department of Budget and Management under their National Expenditure Program.
A huge chunk of the agency’s allocation is intended for salaries of personnel, worth ₱475 billion, followed by maintenance and other operating expenses worth ₱98 billion, and capital outlay at ₱32 billion.
Meanwhile, ACT-Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro, Bohol Rep. Edgar Chatto, among other lawmakers pushed for a higher budget for DepEd to boost its efforts in providing IT support, module printing, health measures in schools, and medical check-up funds, among other services.
