DBM says proposed 2026 national budget is education centered

The Department of Budget and Management on Thursday said that the Marcos administration’s proposed P6.793-trillion national budget for 2026 places at its center the education sector.

This, as the Senate conducts plenary deliberations on the proposed budget for next year. The House of Representatives passed its version on third and final reading earlier this year.

The Marcos administration has placed education front and center in the proposed 2026 national budget, strengthening investments that directly support learners, teachers, and school communities nationwide, according to the DBM.

The agency issued the statement amid the controversy surrounding the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA) partilcularly on alleged insertions on public works project which supposedly dwarfed the Constitutionally mandated allocation priority for the education sector.

At the 2025 DepEd Classroom Summit held at SMX Clark on Thursday, DBM officer-in-charge (OIC) Secretary Rolly Toledo affirmed the “administration’s commitment to building safe, dignified, and climate-resilient learning spaces for all Filipino students.”

In his address, Toledo said the 2026 National Expenditure Program (NEP) is, in essence, an “education budget” as it “reflects the government’s strengthened push for learning continuity and infrastructure development.”

“For the first time, 4% of our GDP is dedicated to education—clear proof that this government, under the leadership of PBBM, is investing in our children, our teachers, and our schools,” said the DBM OIC.

He added that education infrastructure is at the heart of this investment. 

“With the DBM and the Government Procurement Policy Board operationalizing the National Government Procurement Act, we are ushering in procurement strategies that will deliver classrooms faster, more efficiently, and with greater transparency and accountability,” he said.

Under the proposed P928.5-billion budget for the Department of Education, P44.58 billion is allocated specifically for education infrastructure. 

The funding supports the construction of almost 4,900 new classrooms, including child-appropriate kindergarten rooms, alongside the repair of more than 9,400 existing classrooms nationwide, strengthening both access and quality of learning spaces.

The DBM, moreover, said the 2026 NEP also sets aside more than P1.134 billion for the restoration of over a hundred heritage Gabaldon school buildings, ensuring that historic structures are preserved while being made safe and functional for today’s learners. 

For geographically isolated and underserved communities, P3 billion is allotted for the construction of 200 new Last Mile Schools, each designed with solar power, water and sanitation facilities, and appropriate furniture to support learning in remote areas.

Beyond new construction, next year’s budget includes essential complementary needs such as furniture for more than 18,000 classrooms, electrification for over 400 schools, and the establishment of more than 300 new health and sanitation facilities. 

These investments ensure that learning environments are not only structurally sound but also holistic, functional, and conducive to student well-being, according to the DBM.

The Budget Department added that there was also P9.39 billion earmarked for the Infrastructure for Safer and Resilient Schools Project, which will rehabilitate, retrofit, and rebuild nearly 1,300 disaster-affected schools, amounting to more than 13,000 classrooms nationwide as the administration recognizes the country’s vulnerability to disasters as well as its commitment to building climate-resilient school infrastructure.

The first-ever Classroom Summit, organized by the DepEd, brought together more than 1,000 participants from national agencies, local government units, civil society organizations, and development partners such as the World Bank and UNICEF. 

The event aimed to address the country’s chronic classroom backlog, strengthen procurement readiness, and introduce innovative and climate-adaptive school infrastructure solutions.—AOL, GMA Integrated News