There is no argument that a strong educational system fosters economic expansion. Education is considered by many as an investment in human capital that yields favorable returns to the economy. Nations with a greater number of people attending schools experience a more robust economic growth than those with less educated workers.
The Global Partnership for Education (GPE), a multi-stakeholder partnership and funding platform, sees education as a powerful agent of change that “improves health and livelihoods, contributes to social stability and drives long-term economic growth.”
It tends to raise productivity and creativity, as well as stimulate entrepreneurship and technological breakthroughs. GPE says all of these factors lead to greater output and economic growth.
Education in the Philippines, sadly, is wanting. A moderate performer in terms of its knowledge infrastructure, our nation ranks 80th out of 133 countries in the Global Knowledge Index 2023 and fourth out of the 25 countries with medium human development. The GKI rates a nation’s expertise in terms of education, innovation, knowledge, economy, technology, and research and development.
Much can be done to improve our educational system. But even if we have Vice President Sara Duterte, the second most powerful leader in the country at its helm, the Department of Education still suffers from governance. The department is facing a myriad of challenges that it cannot handle alone.
Lack of infrastructure and school facilities to support learning is the most pressing issue. Two out three school buildings are in bad condition (223,315 out of 327,851 school buildings). The nation continues to face a shortage of around 168,000 classrooms, which requires P420 billion or around P2.5 million per classroom to address it.
The lack of school buildings is symptomatic of the ills bugging DepEd. Its budget of P10 billion is puny―the amount can only build around 4,000 classrooms or way below the needed infrastructure to address the deficiency.
Students also lack learning materials. They had to share textbooks due to the failure of DepEd to procure nearly half of the required textbooks and instructional materials, resulting in the underutilization of P1.03 billion allocated for this purpose.
Clearly, something is amiss with the department’s procurement process. VP Duterte noted delays in the submission of technical specifications, the lack of updated guidelines and qualified bidders, and the low participation rate of prospective bidders.
The planning and procurement system, for one, should be swift in order to be responsive to the needs of the students by the time of delivery. Authorities cited an experience from Baguio City, where it took two years from the central office to approve and procure learning devices needed to support blended learning. With this delay, the devices procured were outdated by the time of delivery.
The Commission on Audit (COA) has flagged the DepEd for its failure to use over P3 billion allocated for the procurement of learning tools and equipment (LTE) for science, mathematics, and technical-vocational livelihood subjects in public schools.
The 2022 annual audit report on DepEd showed just 14.54 percent of the allocated budget (P552.325 million out of P3.798 billion) was obligated by December 31, 2022, leaving an unobligated balance of P3.246 billion.
So what needs to be remedied? Ms. Sara Duterte, perhaps, should look into tapping the involvement of local government units and the private sector in education governance.
It is about time that we devolve management of public elementary and high schools from DepEd to local government units.
AIM professor and public policy adviser Vic Limlingan proposed the transfer of public school administration to existing Pamantasan or local universities and colleges. For areas without them, schools could be devolved to local school boards.
This move is a crackdown on bureaucracy and will pave the way for ease in procurement and spending. It will also allow local governments to utilize their Special Education Fund according to the needs of schools and allocate local resources judiciously.
One cannot expect change in the system if things are not done differently. If the Vice President is really true to her promise of improving the current state of education where taking steps to accelerate delivery of basic education facilities and services is most essential, then she must decentralize the management of the Department of Education.
We can learn from models of best practice in school administration abroad. Decentralized school districts yield significantly higher student results. Despite challenges and criticism, major cities like New York, Chicago and Boston have begun implementing decentralized approaches, along with other districts such as Seattle and Houston.
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