Lower funding for new school buildings a challenge - DepEd

The Department of Education (DepEd) has called attention on the impact of the decrease in funding for basic education inputs program –particularly on the construction of new school buildings and the goal to reduce the size of classes.

DepEd Undersecretary for Finance Service and Education Programs Delivery Unit Annalyn Sevilla confirmed that some of its programs were given lower allocation in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2020. In particular, the agency fears that the decrease in funding for new construction of school buildings would greatly affect its goal of lowering class sizes in various grade levels.

Congestion in many public schools –especially in urban areas – has been a perennial challenge to DepEd every school year. For School Year (SY) 2019-2020, DepEd welcomed approximately 27.2 million Kindergarten to Grade 12 learners both in public and private schools. Based on the DepEd data in the recent years, enrollment has been increasing steadily every school opening.

In the past years, DepEd has been seeking ways to further improve teacher-to-student ratio in public schools. “With enrollment in public schools increasing every year, achieving the optimum teacher to student ratio will ensure quality teaching and learning in class,” DepEd said in an earlier statement.

Since 2016, DepEd has lowered the teacher-to-student ratio to 1:35 for elementary and 1:43 for secondary schools to enable teachers to better respond to the varying learning needs of their students. According to DepEd Undersecretary for Planning and Field Operations Jesus Mateo, the teacher-student ratio is 1:31 for the elementary level, 1:36 for Junior High School level, and 1:31 for Senior High School level for School Year 2017-2018.

However, the decrease in funding for Basic Education Inputs program in the 2020 budget – particularly for the new construction of school buildings – DepEd expresses concern that the required number of classrooms for learners in the coming years may be not be enough.