P10B needed for students' learning recovery — Gatchalian

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said Thursday that the Department of Education (DepEd) needs roughly P10 billion to fund academic recovery programs and help improve the Filipino learners' performance in international assessment studies.

Gatchalian, who chairs the Senate basic education committee, said that the P10-billion funding goal would only be a short-term reform to improve learner outcomes, considering that the Filipino learners continue to lag behind in mathematics, science, and reading, based on the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results.
 

However, Gatchalian said that DepEd has only earmarked P2.9 billion for learning recovery under the proposed 2024 national budget.
 

"Our office estimated that we will need approximately P10 billion to intensify [our academic programs] because what we need now is not only learning recovery, but an intensified learning recovery from kindergarten all the way to Grade 10 in order to help students catch up," he said in an interview on CNN Philippines.
 

The senator said that while he will push to have funds realigned at the bicameral conference, the Office of the President and government agencies may need to be tapped to achieve the remaining P7 billion.
 

He stressed that the Philippines really has to spend big in order to get out of the education crisis brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
 

"We have contingency funds in different departments. We have other sources of funds scattered all over the different departments. If we can convince other offices to allocate funds for the remaining P7 billion that is needed for an intensified learning recovery, that would be the best case," he added.
 

Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte lamented Tuesday the Philippines' poor performance on the 2022 PISA, saying that a collective effort must be made to address the problem.


Alex Sucalit Jr., Department of Education’s senior education program specialist and PISA focal person, said that the recent PISA results might have shown that the Philippines is about five to six years behind as compared to other countries with higher scores.


Funding per student


Gatchalian said that the country's low spending per student might have also contributed to the dismal performance of Filipino learners in the recent PISA study.

Citing the 2022 PISA, he said that the Philippines only spends $11,000 per student in basic education, which is "really far" from how much the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries pay per student.
 

"OECD countries, on the average, spend about $102,000 per student in basic education. That's a world of difference. The Philippines only spends a tenth of what OECD countries spend," he said in a separate ANC interview.
 

Duterte, for her part, had said that the PISA results did not merely reflect the country's education system, but reflected the DepEd's collective efforts, investments, and commitment to education and the future it envisions for the learners.


She said that the DepEd has started to take "significant strides" to address the issue by introducing the MATATAG Curriculum, implementing the national reading, math, and science programs, and initiating "Catch-up Fridays" for learners' reading, among others. - VDV, GMA Integrated News