DepEd faces P51-B budget cut

MANILA, Philippines — For the first time in almost two decades, the Department of Education (DepEd) is facing a possible budget cut by as much as P51 billion next year.

Education officials led by Secretary Leonor Briones yesterday presented details of the agency’s proposed budget next year as indicated in the National Expenditure Program submitted to Congress.

According to DepEd, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) only approved P527.714 billion or 72.09 percent of their original proposal of P732.280 billion next year.

If passed by Congress without changes, the agency’s budget will be lower by over P51 billion than this year’s P579.419 billion.

This is the first time that agency would suffer a budget cut since the reorganization that transformed the former Department of Education, Culture and Sports to DepEd in 2001. 

Education Undersecretary for Finance Annalyn Sevilla said the decline is expected as next year’s budget will be under an annual cash-based appropriation, wherein funding will only cover activities and services that will be delivered and paid within the year.

Sevilla said the possible budget cut for DepEd will not have an adverse impact on the delivery of services to the students.

“Provision of programs and projects shall continue though there is a shift in the allocation of funding for 2018 compared to previous years, hence the reduction in absolute amount available for 2019,” added Sevilla.

Lower capital outlay

Based on the data presented by DepEd, the decrease will be on funds for capital outlay, which could drop from 122.460 billion to a measly 45.504 billion.

Capital outlay is used to fund construction of new buildings and acquisition of items such as furniture and equipment.

Meanwhile, funds for personal services – which is used for salaries of teachers and personnel – would increase from 380.102 billion to 404.395 billion.

Allocation for maintenance and other operating expenses will also increase from P76.857 billion to P77.818 billion.

By program, DepEd said allocation increased for operation of schools (P305 billion to P346 billion), the voucher program (P14 billion to P20 billion) and repair of schools (P6.8 billion to P10.5 billion).

Among the programs that would suffer cuts include indigenous people’s education (P130 million to P57 million), development and promotion of campus journalism (P9.6 million to P2.1 million), physical fitness and school sports (P388 million to P288 million), nutritional assessment (P485 million to P236 million) and the DepEd computerization program (P8.6 billion to P4.2 billion).

Also suffering cuts are programs for learning tools and equipment (P7.8 billion to P4.1 billion), construction of new schools (from P105 billion to P34 billion) and school-based feeding program (P5.3 billion to P3.9 billion).

Proposals not considered

DepEd said the DBM has not fully considered funding proposals for some its major programs.

Instead of its proposed P116 billion to fund construction of over 46,000 classrooms, it said that the budget department only recommended P10.2 billion enough for only around 4,000 classrooms.

Other proposals not fully considered include learning materials (P1.79 billion instead of P2.8 billion), school seats (43,200 sets instead of 80,000 sets), laboratories (1,320 instead of 3,827) and electrification of schools (1,720 sites instead of 5,940 sites).

In addition, the agency said its budget for special education amounting to over P562 million has not been restored despite the appeal to DBM.

Meanwhile, an additional P2.2 billion is proposed to fund the school dental health care program.

Meanwhile, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority will enjoy a 100 percent increase from P7.6 billion to P14.83 billion.