IF WE are to believe many of our lawmakers’ pronouncements about their supposedly genuine concern for the country’s future generation, we would think they would move heaven and earth so that the education sector continues to receive the highest allocation in the national budget, right?
But that is the farthest from the truth.
At a time when the country is addressing the learning crisis that has haunted us even before the Covid-19 pandemic, here comes Congress with the perfect solution to improve the sorry state of education in the country – slashing the Department of Education’s 2025 budget by around P12 billion, including P10 billion for its computerization program.
This latest move from Congress is not only unconstitutional but also anti-poor.
As stipulated in Section 1, Article XIV of the 1987 Philippine Constitution, the State shall “protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality education at all levels.”
On the other hand, Section 5 (5), Article XIV also declares that the State shall “assign the highest budgetary priority to education …”
Congress, in its latest act of slashing the education budget, is definitely neglecting this constitutional mandate. Quite unfortunately but not surprisingly at all, our lawmakers have not learned anything after seeing for themselves the lingering effects of underfunding education.
Consider these.
Based on the 2022 Global Competitiveness Report, the country is ranked 64th out of 141 economies in terms of human capital. This indicates the persistent stagnation in the country’s educational progress.
That same year, the DepEd needed 60,000 new classrooms to meet the demands of a growing student population. This simply tells us that even the very basic education facility of providing classrooms that are conducive for learning has not been resolved over the years. Meanwhile, the average teacher-to-student ratio in public schools exceeded 1:35, far above the ideal ratio of 1:20.
In its 2023 report, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization highlighted that the Philippines faces one of the highest dropout rates in Southeast Asia, with many students forced to leave school due to the lack of proper facilities, resources, and support systems.
The latest results from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) showed that Filipino students ranked 79th out of 79 countries in reading comprehension, 78th in mathematics, and 75th in science.
According to the World Bank, the Philippines ranks below its Southeast Asian neighbors in terms of educational outcomes. The learning poverty rates affect more than 80% of children aged 10. This means they are unable to read and understand a simple text.
In contrast, Congress has allocated billions to agencies with questionable reputations for transparency. For instance, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) which has consistently been one of the top recipients of government funds, received a P289 billion budget increase, while the budget for rewards of Bureau of Customs employees rose to P3.6 billion.
So, what message does Congress send by prioritizing such agencies over education? It couldn’t be more chilling as this: corruption is allowed to thrive, while the future of the nation’s children is left to suffer.
Education is the cornerstone of any nation’s growth. To defund or underfund it means to deprive the country’s future of their right to a fair and quality education. When our lawmakers fail to uphold the Filipinos’ right to education, they leave them with a curse – one that condemns them to a cycle of poverty and inequality.
