MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education should get an increased budget of P160 million from the P96 million set aside for capital outlay so local governments can put up learning centers for students with special needs.
The department earlier admitted it has no funding for special education programs under the proposed national budget. "Despite our earnest efforts to advocate for our learners with special needs, it was not considered in the National Expenditure Program," the department said in an earlier statement.
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Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, who chairs the Senate Committee on Basic Education, said increasing capital outlay would allow regions in the country to put up a model Inclusive Learning Resource Center for Learners with Disabilities. The senator added that he will submit his proposals on potential funding sources to the Senate Committee on Finance.
"This representation sincerely recommends that we increase the budget of capital outlay from P96 million to P160 million just to convert SPED centers in all regions, and we will have one model ILRC per region," Gatchalian said during his interpellation of the proposed DepEd budget for 2023.
The P96-million allocation was intended for the conversion of 16 SPED Centers nationwide to ILRCs, which are mandated to deliver free support services to learners with disabilities, including language and speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical and physiotherapy, provision of qualified sign language interpreters, and other similar services, aids, and actions that facilitate the learning process.
These centers are also mandated to implement inclusive education programs. The minimum funding requirement for the conversion of SPED centers, however, ranges from P8 million to P10 million.
Though the last existing census on the disability community in the country was conducted in 2010, a 2017 study by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies of 1,031 adult women and 823 children with disabilities in two cities, majority of respondents were found to be mobility-impaired (39.7%).
According to DepEd data as of mid-March, there were 126,598 learners with disabilities enrolled in DepEd schools for School Year 2021-2022. This was 65% lower than the 360,879 recorded for SY 2019-2020.
SPED law
Just last March, former President Rodrigo Duterte signed Republic Act No. 11650 or the Instituting a Policy of Inclusion and Services for Learners with Disabilities in Support of Inclusive Education Act guaranteeing free early and basic education to learners with special needs.
Under the measure, special education students and learners with disability are given better access to the formal school system through the creation of Inclusive Learning Resource Centers in every city and municipality.
The law mandates that the DepEd and local government units shall establish and maintain at least one ILRC in all cities and municipalities, while all existing SPED Centers shall be converted to and renamed ILRCs.
It also calls for a "whole-of-community approach" for introducing learners with disabilities into the general education system and community, adding that all sectors including the academe and private stakeholders must participate in such efforts.