President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared in her 2007 State of the Nation Address (SONA) that there has been a marked improvement in the literacy rate in the Philippines over the last few years- from 72 percent in 1960 to 94 percent in 1990. She attributes this to the increase in both the number of schools built and the level of enrollment in these schools. She reaffirms her statement in last year’s SONA that in today's global economy, knowledge is the greatest creator of wealth. A good education is the best bequest for our children. This year, her administration will invest P150 billion for education to build, with the private sector, more classrooms all over the nation; provide more books so school children do not have to share them; and provide Internet access and more scholarship grants to secondary level students. Upwards of 50,000 new teaching positions will also be created to slash the student-teacher ratio and more will be spent for the induction and in-service training of public school teachers.
Despite the Philippine Constitution mandate that government allocates the highest proportion of its budget to education, the Philippines still has one of the lowest budget allocations to education among the ASEAN countries. Be that as it may, this budget could be stretched further by amending the current system of budgeting for education across regions, which is based on participation rates and unit costs. This clearly favors the more developed regions. There is a need to provide more allocation to lagging regions to narrow the disparity across regions. Also, the president’s plan, as she outlined in her 2007 SONA, does little to stop the current practice of subsidizing state universities and colleges to enhance access. This may not be the best way to promote equity. What could be more equitable is an expanded scholarship program giving more focus and priority to the poor.
No comments:
Post a Comment