Government committed to improve quality of education – Palace

President Benigno S. Aquino III poses with pupils of the newly repaired classrooms of Guiuan East Central School in Barangay 8, Poblacion, Guiuan during the visit to the province of Eastern Samar on Friday (November 07). It was in Guiuan where super Typhoon Yolanda, the strongest typhoon ever recorded, made its first landfall on November 08, 2013. (Photo by Gil Nartea / Malacañang Photo bureau)

MANILA – Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Herminio Colomia Jr. on Sunday said the government is committed to further strengthen the projects and programs aimed at improving the quality of education in the country.

Coloma said the government has allotted Php10 billion that will be used for the hiring of more than 39,000 new teachers and 1,500 non-teaching positions.

”It aims to fill up the shortage of teachers and non-teaching personnel in our public schools,” Coloma said.

According to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the government has also allotted Php3.5 billion for the purchase of 70.5 million text books and other teaching materials.

”At least Php54 billion has also be set aside for the construction of new 31,728 classrooms and repair of 9,500 classrooms, including water and sanitation facilities, 455 technical-vocational laboratories and 1.3 million chairs,” Coloma said.

Coloma said the Department of Education (DepEd) has also allocated Php8.5 billion for the 24,000 information and communication technology (ICT) packages, including the multimedia laboratories in public high schools and computer laboratories for the elementary public schools under the DepEd’s computerization program.

For 2015, DepEd has the biggest budget allocation amounting to Php367.1 billion, 19 percent higher compared to Php309.5 billion spent in 2014.

Coloma said the government also increased the budget for the State Colleges and Universities (SUC) from Php38 billion in 2014 to Php44 billion this year.