A PHILIPPINE senator has pushed for the Department of Education (DepEd) to work on streamlining the procurement of textbooks next year after the Senate greenlit an additional P300 million in next year’s national budget to fund learning materials.
“It is important to increase the funding for textbooks and use it properly to ensure that every student will have a book. We will continue to push for reforms towards quality education,” Senator and Basic Education Commitee Chairperson Sherwin T. Gatchalian said in a statement.
Senator and Finance Committee Chairperson Mary Grace Natividad S. Poe-Llamanzares earlier said senators were adding P9.9 billion to the national budget for teaching materials next year.
Under the Senate’s final version of the P6.352-trillion national budget next year, DepEd will get P752.25 billion next year, higher than the P748.65 billion proposed by the House.
Citing the Second Congressional Commission’s Year One Report published this year, Mr. Gatchalian said that from 2012 to last year, only 27 of 90 textbook titles were procured for Grades 1 to 10.
The report also showed that only students from Grades 5 and 6 had complete sets of textbooks for all subjects, citing issues of delayed development time, high participation costs and prolonged review processes. — John Victor D. Ordoñez
