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THE
government was asked to set aside P5.3 billion to hire
an additional 39,000 teachers, which Sen. Richard Gordon
said is needed to balance the public school system’s
teacher-to-student ratio in order to ensure that pupils
are given the necessary guidance by their mentors.
In a
statement, Gordon acknowledged that the existing number
of public-school teachers could not keep up with the
rapid growth of pupils enrolling in public schools,
where the current teacher-to-student ratio is at one is
to 50 (1:50), far from the ideal one teacher:35 pupils
ratio.
“Because
of the lack of teachers, add to that the shortage in
classrooms, our pupils have poorer chances of learning
due to overcrowding and class-shifting,” the senator
said, noting that some public schools even have three to
four shifts in a day.
According to Gordon, government statistics show that in
school year 2006-07, public-school enrollment for
elementary students is at 12,096,656 and for secondary
students at 5,072,210; while the number of teachers is
at 343,646 and 128,191, respectively.
He said
one main reason for the declining teacher work force is
the low remuneration. “A public-school teacher’s monthly
salary is P12,000, but after standard deductions, they
only take home P10,000. Some even take home nothing
because of numerous loans they enter into,” he said.
Gordon,
who chairs the Senate Committee on Government
Corporations and Public Enterprise, earlier filed Senate
Bill (SB) 2402, also known as the Health and Education
Acceleration Program (HEAP), which seeks to address the
problem of lack of teachers and their low compensation.
At the
same time, he warned that public-school pupils would
perform far below their counterparts in the private
schools unless the government learns to invest a
considerable amount in their education and health.
Gordon
confirmed that the government spends a measly P6,354 per
student, a very small amount compared with other
nations, and this accounts for the dismal performance in
school and the low quality of education in the country.
“The
government spends so little for our children’s
education. We should realize that education is the
backbone of a country and we should invest on it.
Without education, our people have no choices, our
people would remain poor,” he complained.
In
contrast to the Philippines’ per-student spending of
P6,354, Thailand allots P47,700; Malaysia, P56,846; the
United States, P123,200; and Japan, P293,440.
According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (Unesco), 6 percent of the
gross domestic product (GDP) should be allocated to
education; the World Bank says 20 percent of the budget
of developing countries should be set aside thereof.
Gordon
noted that the government allocates only 2.53 percent of
the GDP and only 12 percent of its national outlay to
education, which is why there is a staggering shortage
in school facilities and manpower in public-schools.
Given
the scarce resources of the national government, he
cited the need for an innovative approach through SB
2402.
Under SB
2402, touted as the “text-for-change” bill,
telecommunications companies (telcos) will be required
to remit part of their net profits from local text
messaging to a fund that augments government resources
to finance needed education and health infrastructures.
“We
recognize the scarce resources of the government, but we
have to improve our educational and health-care system.
And so we came up with the HEAP bill where both the
private sector and the public can contribute to the
acceleration of education and health standards in the
country,” Gordon said.
Citing
statistics culled from official records, he lamented
that the country suffers from an existing backlog of
9,754 classrooms at the cost of P7.31 billion; 4,121,009
school seats at P4.12 billion; 63,178,377 textbooks at
P4.21 billion; 39,762 teachers at P5.28 billion and an
additional P79 million for their training; and 8,499
principals at P1.66 billion. |
