P11.6B released for DepEd bonuses, but what about ‘learning recovery’?
AS THE budget department announced the release of P11.6 billion for bonuses of Department of Education (DepEd) personnel, a think tank attached to Congress asked on Thursday what level of fund support is being allotted for “learning recovery interventions.”
In a statement, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said the P11.6 billion it released is for the performance-based bonus (PBB) that would benefit 920,073 personnel in public elementary and secondary schools under the DepEd.
The DBM also noted that the release is counted under the performance-based bonus for Financial Year (FY) 2021. “The basis for granting the FY 2021 PBB is DepEd’s accomplishments for FY 2021,” it added.
The Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department (CPBRD) pointed out that the DepEd still lacks programs and funding to support “learning recovery interventions.”
“In the current 2024 proposed national expenditure program (NEP), it is glaring that no specific program and funding have been clearly articulated for catch-up and learning recovery interventions. This unavoidably gives the impression that the government is not very keen in addressing learning losses,” the CPBRD said.
The Philippines’ learning poverty is among the highest in the region, with nine of 10 Filipinos unable to read and understand short, age-appropriate texts by the age of 10, according to the World Bank.
It added that 5% of children who should be in primary school are not enrolled.
“Under the Basic Education Facilities Program or more commonly referred to as the School Building program, there were no additional classrooms completed in 2022,” the CPBRD noted.
“The reported ongoing construction of 1,065 classrooms is very low compared to the shortage of 159,000 for school year 2023-2024 as reported by the DepEd which is even higher than the 91,000 reported in the previous school year,” the CPBRD said.
“When young learners are suffering from undue lack of facilities, it is concerning that obligation and disbursement rates for basic school facilities are utterly low,” it stressed. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz with Luisa Maria Jacinta C. Jocson
