EDUCATION Secretary Armin Luistro on Monday said the government is bent on addressing the perennial problems—shortages of classrooms, teachers and textbooks—when schools open in June.
Luistro said the resources and efforts of Department of the Education (DepEd) are focused on resolving the problems as some 22 million students, including 1.2 million preschool children, are expected to troop back to 38,351 public elementary schools and 7,274 public secondary schools nationwide on June 6.
However, Luistro said the department is aiming to eliminate textbook sharing, especially in five core subjects in the basic education curriculum—English, mathematics, Filipino, science and history. He said the DepEd is rushing the reprinting and delivery, especially in far-flung areas of the country, of the textbooks.
“I am happy to announce that by October this school year, we will have a 1:1 textbook-to-student ratio in the five core subjects.” Luistro told reporters after the launching of this year’s National Schools Maintenance Week, or “Brigada Eskwela,” at the Bago Bantay Elementary School in Quezon City on Monday.
Luistro said the department is also resolving the shortages of school furniture like chairs and desks, as well as toilets.
“The President’s marching order to us is to resolve these shortages in two years,” Luistro said, adding that the department is working with the private sector and local governments to address the gaps, citing the DepEd’s agreement with the 57-75 Movement that is composed of the country’s leading business entities who promised to build 10,000 classrooms in two years.
He admitted that there is a shortage of 103,612 elementary and secondary school teachers; 66,800 classrooms; 2,573,212 school furniture; and 146,000 toilets.
Luistro said local governments have promised to hire a total of 50,000 teachers to serve in their localities this school year to make up for the shortfall, while the department has inked an agreement with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. to utilize confiscated illegally cut lumber for school furniture with the state gaming agency footing the bill.
Some 250,000 chairs and tables will be delivered under the partnership before the school opening.
The education department has allocated P12.45 billion for classroom construction and P1.15 billion for school furniture after it got a 19- percent increase in its overall budget from last year’s P175 billion to P207 billion this year, though P165 billion of it would go to personnel salaries.
The DepEd has also set aside P5.83 billion for scholarship slots under the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education.
Earlier, Party-list Rep. Raymond Palatino of Kabataan said the textbook shortage in the elementary and secondary levels stood at 95,557,887.
Palatino said the government’s budget of P1.78 billion for the procurement of new textbooks this school year would suffice only for 32,325,782 or a deficit of 63,232,105.
Palatino said Kabataan’s data was based on statistics provided by the DepEd and the Department of Budget and Management last year.
