Background
DepEd’s budget received an increase from P633.3 billion in 2022 to P710.6 billion in 2023.
The DepEd, with a 13.2% allocation in the proposed Php5.768 trillion 2024 budget, is second only to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) with 14.3% share. Only the Office of the Secretary (OSEC) has a minimal budget increase of 5.3%, while all the other agencies under the department have budget cuts (San Miguel, 2023 August 30).
The agencies under the DepEd that are experiencing budget cuts are:
- National Book Development Board, by 9.1% (from Php145.4 million to Php132 million);
- Early Childhood Care Development Council, by 25% (Php295.2 million to Php221.1 million);
- National Museum, by 15.3% (Php1.2 billion to Php 1 billion);
- National Council for Children’s Television, by 16.5% (from Php75.6 million to Php63.1 million);
- Philippine High School for the Arts, by 8.6% (from Php110 million to Php100.5 million);
- National Academy of Sports , by a huge 44.9% (Php357.4 million to Php 196.9 million).
It is particularly problematic to know that the budget of the early education arm of the DepEd will be cut down by a fourth or by PhP74.1 million, while PhP150 million will be allocated to what amounts to discretionary spending.
Fortunately, the House of Representatives decided to realign the confidential funds in the proposed 2024 DepEd budget (Crisostomo, 2023 September 30). However, should the PhP150 million be used for security or to solve issues in Philippine education?
What is problematic in this scenario?
(1) The PhP150 million in confidential funds undermine transparency.
The problem with including an item for confidential funds is that it undermines transparency in the budget process. They are essentially discretionary funds. By their nature, their existence in the DepEd budget also undermines the Constitution because it takes away the House’s ability to scrutinize the budget and determine whether resources are being used or allocated for the most important needs.
Vice President and DepEd Secretary Sara Duterte said that there was “a purpose and need for confidential funds in the Department of Education because basic education was intertwined with national security.” She has also been quoted saying, “For after all, there is security, there is peace.”
I would argue that the correct quote is, “If you want peace, work on justice.” Justice entails transparency and parity, which does not happen when you curtail or undermine systems put in place to ensure their existence. There are also existing departments mandated to address security concerns, particularly the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG). Why should DepEd address concerns outside of their mandate? Is this an efficient use of their resources?
Furthermore, DepEd, through its secretary, did not fully explain the need for the confidential funds. What needs are these funds addressing? How important are these needs? And do they supersede the pressing needs in the Philippine public education system?
(2) They reduced the budget for important agencies, particularly the Early Childhood Care Development Council (ECCD).
The ECCD Council is a government agency mandated by Republic Act 10410 or the Early Years Act of 2013, as the primary agency implementing the government’s National ECCD System.
The National ECCD System refers to and covers the full range of health, nutrition, early education, and social services programs and services for children aged 0 to 4 years old. Essentially, it aims to address early childhood education needs through a holistic approach.
The Council is responsible for (1) establishing national standards, (2) developing policies and programs, (3) providing technical assistance and support to ECCD service providers, and (4) monitoring ECCD service benefits and outcomes.
Many studies have demonstrated the value of early childhood education, particularly in learning outcomes (Lunenberg, 2000). Reducing the budget of the ECCD by 25% suggests that early childhood education is not a priority of DepEd.
What is the opportunity cost of the PhP150 million in confidential funds?
Does the DepEd truly understand the problems facing Philippine education? What problems aren’t the PhP150 million in confidential funds addressing?
In my opinion, the Philippines is facing a severe public education problem that impacts the growth capacity of the Philippines in the long-term. This should be the priority of DepEd.
(1) The Philippines faces severe learning poverty.
According to the World Bank (2022), there is severe learning poverty in the Philippines: 91% of children in the Philippines at late primary age (10 years old) are not proficient in reading. There are two indicators for learning poverty: (1) learning deprivation and (2) schooling deprivation. In the Philippines, we have both.
- Learning Deprivation. Large-scale learning assessments of students in the Philippines indicate that 90% do not achieve the MPL (minimum proficiency level) at the end of primary school, proxied by data from grade 5 in 2019.
- Schooling Deprivation. In the Philippines, 5% of primary school-aged children are not enrolled in school. These children are excluded from learning in school.
(2) We are not spending enough to educate Filipino children.
Primary education expenditure per child of primary education age in the Philippines is USD 569 (PPP), which is 83.5% below the average for the East Asia and Pacific region and 29.5% below the average for lower middle income countries (World Bank, 2022).
The approved 2024 Philippine budget is reallocating resources away from early childhood education.
Here lies the problem. Many studies have shown that early education programs have a significant and positive impact on the academic, economic, and social aspects of a person’s life (Lunenburg, 2000). If we are to address the Philippines’ learning poverty today, it would be best to begin by spending for early childhood education.
But will increasing spending alone address learning poverty?
Abrigo (2021) posits that spending alone is not an indication of schooling quality as “some systems may be better at converting education inputs into outputs.” He offers, for example, that “Belarus, and Bosnia and Herzegovina both spend about PPP$50 thousand in cumulative education consumption up to age 15, but their average PISA scores differ by about 70 points.”
Does this apply to us? Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be the case if our learning assessments are any indication. This only means that we are not only underspending, but we are also not making efficient use of our limited resources, leading to poor public education quality.
(3) Teachers are part of the reason for the learning gaps.
The World Bank claims that quality of teaching, pedagogy, and classroom management are among the significant factors that impact learning outcomes. The Philippines lags behind in these areas. The report furthers that many of the in-service training programs in lagging countries, including the Philippines, lack the crucial elements of effective teacher training programs (Afkar et al, 2023).
Teachers are crucial in addressing learning poverty. Unfortunately, the quality of teacher training programs has been found to contribute to learning poverty.
(4) We have a classroom gap.
According to DepEd (Tan, 2023), the Philippines require a yearly budget of P100 billion to resolve the classroom shortage by 2030. Having schools and classrooms, particularly in poor communities, is necessary to keep kids in school (Lunenburg, 2000).
Currently, the Philippines lacks 159,000 classrooms.
Poverty is one of the significant reasons why children stop attending school (Fernandez & Abocejo, 2014) and a significant contributor to schooling deprivation. Many children choose to join the labor force to augment household income, while others simply stop attending school because of the costs of doing so, including but not limited to transportation costs. Fernandez and Abocejo (2014) propose that free basic education is not enough, and governments should construct schools close to poor communities to encourage more children to attend.
DepEd estimates that each classroom costs PhP2.5 million to construct. While the figure seems inflated already, the confidential funds could have been used to construct 60 classrooms.
Addressing schooling deprivation requires a holistic approach because poverty is a multi-dimension issue. It is for this reason why the ECCD is mandated to provide early childhood education support with a holistic approach.
(5) The Philippines will suffer in the long term if this is not addressed.
What issues are we currently facing? We have learning poverty in the Philippines. Teachers, who are supposed to help reduce learning poverty, are not only ill-equipped to address the issue, but their poor training contribute to learning poverty. The Philippines also lacks 159,000 classrooms to support public education.
If we don’t address these immediate problems, we are going to run into a labor crisis in the next decade or so, when these children join the workforce.
The Philippine labor force has long been considered as the Philippines’ competitive advantage. We banner our skilled, English-speaking labor force, which has earned us investments in business process outsourcing, among many other industries. However, this competitive advantage is slowly eroding. With Thailand, Indonesia, and even Vietnam (Abrigo, 2021) outspending the Philippines in education, we might soon lag behind our neighbors in Southeast Asia.
Sources:
Abrigo, M. R. M. (2021). If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys? Education spending and schooling quality in the Philippines (No. 2021-27). PIDS Discussion Paper Series. Retrieved from https://pidswebs.pids.gov.ph/CDN/PUBLICATIONS/pidsdps2127.pdf
Afkar, R., Béteille, T., Breeding, M. E., Linden, T., Mason, A. D., Mattoo, A., … & Yarrow, N. (2023). Fixing the Foundation: Teachers and Basic Education in East Asia and Pacific.
Chi, C. (2023, September 22). Learning poverty in the Philippines linked to poor teaching quality – World Bank study. Philippine Star.Retrieved from https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2023/09/22/2298233/learning-poverty-philippines-linked-poor-teaching-quality-world-bank-study
Crisostomo, S. (2023, September 30). 10 agendies to be affected by confidential fund realignment. PhilStar.com. Retrieved from https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2023/09/30/2300086/10-agencies-be-affected-confidential-fund-realignment
Fernandez, R. C. C., & Abocejo, F. T. (2014). Child labor, poverty and school attendance: Evidences from the Philippines by region. CNU Journal of Higher Education, 8(1), 114-127.
Lunenburg, F. C. (2000). Early Childhood Education Programs Can Make a Difference in Academic, Economic, and Social Arenas. Education, 120(3).
Macasero, R. (2023, August 23). Philippine classroom shortage rises to 159,000. Rappler. Retrieved from https://www.rappler.com/nation/deped-report-classroom-shortage-school-year-2023-2024/
Mantaring, J.R. (2023, September 4). DepEd’s PhP758.6-B proposed 2024 budget gets Senate panel nod. CNNPhilippines.com. Retrieved from http://www.cnnphilippines.com/news/2023/9/4/senate-panel-deped-proposed-2024-budget.html
San Miguel, M.J. (2023, August 30). 2024 education budget: When will the government learn? IBON.org. Retrieved from https://www.ibon.org/2024-education-budget-when-will-government-learn/
Tan, A.N.O. (2023, March 16). Philippines needs at least P100B yearly to close classroom gap. BusinessWorld Online. Retrieved from https://www.bworldonline.com/the-nation/2023/03/16/511171/philippines-needs-at-least-p100b-yearly-to-close-classroom-gap/
World Bank (2022 June). Philippines Learning Poverty Brief.Retrieved from https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099000207152223103/pdf/IDU002b5536c0db4104ec3087d809906ec2eae56.pdf
Tales from the classroom is a special blog series where I share research and articles I produce in my DBA (Doctorate in Business Administration) program.
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