Country's public education still in crisis
Iloilo City -- Senate President Franklin Drilon said public education in the country continues to be in crisis having a budget gap of P10.5 billion.
Speaking over the Grand Centennial Alumni Homecoming of Baluarte Elementary School in Molo, Iloilo City last December 30, 2005 the Ilonggo legislator lamented the lack of government support to education.
Drilon cited that education should have been given importance by the government as it is the key to personnel advancement, people's advancement and the nation's advancement.
Drilon disclosed that the country lacks 10,500 classrooms which if constructed would cost around P4.6 billion.
Schools also lack 1.2 million desks which amount to P720 million and 12,000 textbooks costing around P1.2 billion.
The country's schools, he said, also need additional 12,000 teachers to achieve the 1:40 teacher-student ratio. The need for additional teachers require P1.2 billion budget a year.
To note, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo submitted to Congress a P1.05 trillion budget for the year 2006. However reports say the proposed budget focuses on socioeconomic renewal and fiscal health.
The P1.05 trillion budget is 14.7 percent higher than the year 2005 budget of P918.6 billion and accounts for 17.6 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).
"Despite the programmed increase in the budget next year, we look forward to fully financing it, at the same time bring down the budget deficit to P124.9 billion from the current year's target of P180 billion"; the President said in her budget message. Relative to the country's GDP, the budget deficit is down to 2.1 percent compared to 3.4 percent this year.
Government projected revenues for 2006 are expected to reach P968.6 billion, P874.3 billion or 90.2 percent of which will come from taxes while the remaining P94.3 billion will be derived from non-tax sources such as fees and charges, income, privatization proceeds and foreign grants.