House panel OKs bill addressing classroom shortage | News |

The House Committee on Basic Education and Culture on Monday approved a bill which aims to address the long-standing problem of classroom shortage in the country by rationalizing the Department of Education’s (DepEd) budget allocation for capital outlay.

House Bill 3174 which was filed by House Deputy Speaker Ralph Recto, seeks to amend Republic Act No. 7880 or the “Fair and Equitable Access to Education Act” in a bid to eliminate the problem of classroom shortage, as well as rationalize the construction, rehabilitation, replacement, completion, and repair of needed school building and classrooms.

RA 7880 states that 50% of the total capital outlay for DepEd is allocated “pro rata” to legislative districts according to student population, while only 40% is allocated to those with classroom shortages.

Recto, in his explanatory note, argued that this formula does not respond to the existing school building or classroom statistics anymore.

“The thrust of this bill is to shift priority, to areas with scarcity of classrooms by increasing the resource allocation for classroom shortages from 40% to 70% of the total capital outlay, while reducing the allocation for capital outlay according to student population from 50% to 20%. This is coupled with the proposed annual increase in the budget by 20% to eradicate classroom shortage,” the House bill read.

The DepEd, meanwhile, in a position paper, noted that it subscribes to the lowering of the percentage allocation of student population in favor of the classroom shortage as provided, and to increase the annual budget allocation for capital outlay by 20% to achieve the targeted classroom-to-student ratio to eliminate classroom shortage.

In August, DepEd Assistant Secretary Cesar Bringas announced that the agency would need around P397 billion to address the 159,000 classroom backlog nationwide.

The DepEd, in the 2023 national budget, was only given P10 billion which can cover the construction of more than 7,100 classrooms, said Bringas.

House Bill 3174 also directs the creation of a National School Building Committee composed of the DepEd and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to draw the Annual School Building Expenditure Program.

In the same hearing, the House committee on basic education and culture also approved an unnumbered bill seeking to establish the Private Basic Education Voucher Program, repealing RA 8545 or the Expanded Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education Act (E-GASTPE). — RSJ, GMA Integrated News