Funding For Education: Paper Is No Longer Crumpled Neither A Short Pencil
Our national hero Dr. Jose Rizal sent a message to the children that they are the hope of our country. He released it in the 1890s and it has been proven that this tradition remains true even in this time of innovation. When it comes to children, they are the most important source of health in our country because the fate of this country rests in their hands. Because of this, the welfare of the children should remain the first concern of a responsible society in order to build their future in a knowledgeable and democratic school.
We strongly believe that we should continue to nurture the future of our children by ensuring that we have enough weapons to cope with the increasingly expensive education. In this, the government should intervene in cooperation with the sectors of our society. However, in these dreams, parents play a big role in order for their children to succeed. But in a democratic country like the Philippines, we can say that this obligation is also the burden of the government to respond to the educational needs of children regardless of the level of society their parents belong to.
In the Philippines, the government subsidizes free public education for all students from elementary and high school as well as government-owned colleges and universities. But for a long time, the protesting students and teachers have always complained about the poor allocation of education and social services such as health when compared to other government agencies that often pocket their annual budget. If the children used to shout about the lack of funds for education, the teachers about the lack of their salaries, it is good to consider that our government is slowly paying attention to these grievances through the efforts of our conscientious legislators and government official.
The national budget for education and the arts and similar social services has been gradually increased through the efforts of the House of Representatives and senators so that it can be approved by the executive through the leadership of the country. It is good to see that the first concern of the government this year is to increase the allocation of the education sector in the next year's national budget and it can be seen that in education alone, there is an additional fund of 6.4 Billion Pesos, a large part of which is directed to build more classrooms and rehabilitate dilapidated schools, open more items for teachers as well as scholarships and more allocations for state colleges and universities across the country.
Since the national budget has been passed by the lower house and senate, which now shows a clear increase in almost all public service departments, this is probably the best gift that the citizens can receive because of the positive attitude shown by the legislators towards the sector of education. Under the national budget, the allocation for the department of education was increased by 5.2 billion Pesos over the original proposal of 145.9 Billion Pesos. For state colleges and universities, the new total allocation of over 152.4 Billion Pesos also includes an additional 1.16 Billion pesos.
The additional estimate of the deped is above 1.07 billion pesos outlay for the construction and improvement of more houses followed by 1.06 billion pesos for additional teaching and non-teaching positions and an additional 1 billion pesos for a total of 3 billion pesos reserved for the education of pre-schoolers and elementary schools. With an increase of 1 billion pesos, the total appropriations for pre-school education has become 3 billion pesos which will definitely bring good results to our children. Other additional appropriations for deped are as follows:
500 million pesos for the seats of the students, 540 million pesos for the payment of teachers who have not received benefits in the past years under the magna carta for public school teachers. 200 million pesos for the distance education program if the study is only available at home or in the study module run by the Deped and 53.2 million pesos for additional personal services or maintenance and other operating expenses of secondary schools. The allocation for SCUs is also at the top with their 524 million pesos which is very necessary to implement more scholarships for poor but able students. Because of these developments, the education sector should rejoice. They will feel the government's great attention to them. Let's not think that the country's education can only be explained by a crumpled paper or a sharpened pencil.
