Gov't budget for public school pupil too low -- Gordon

Public school pupils would perform far below their counterparts in the private schools unless the government learns to invest a considerable amount for their education and health, Independent Senator Richard J. Gordon today said.

Gordon said the government only spends a measly amount of P6,354 per student, a very small amount compared to other nations, which accounts for the dismal performance in school and the low quality of education in the country.

"The government spends so little for our children's education. We should realize that education is the backbone of a country and we should invest on it. Without education, our people have no choices, our people would remain poor," he said.

Gordon noted that the amount of P6,354 the country allocates per student is so meager compared to other nations--Thailand's budget per student is at P47,700; Malaysia is at P56,846; United States is at P123,200; and Japan is at P293,440.

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), six percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) should be allocated to education while the World Bank notes that 20 percent of the budget of developing countries should be set aside thereof.

Gordon, however, explained that the government allocates only 2.53 percent of the GDP and only 12 percent of its national outlay to education, which is why there is a staggering shortage in school facilities and manpower in public schools nationwide.

He added that given the scarce resources of the national government, there is a need to come up with an innovative approach to resolve the problem through Senate Bill (SB) 2402, or the Health and Education Acceleration Program (HEAP) he authored.

Under SB 2402, touted as "text-for-change" bill, telecommunication companies (telcos) will be required to remit part of their net profits from local text messaging that would help augment government resources to finance needed education and health infrastructures.

"We recognize the scarce resources of the government, but we have to improve our educational and health care system. And so we came up with the HEAP bill where both the private sector and the public can contribute to the acceleration of education and health standards in the country," Gordon said.

The country suffers from an existing backlog of 9,754 classrooms at the cost of P7.31 billion; 4,121,009 school seats at P4.12 billion; 63,178,377 textbooks at P4.21 billion; 39,762 teachers at P5.28 billion and an additional P79 million for their training; and 8,499 principals at P1.66 billion..

Given the multi-billion revenues of mobile service providers from text messaging, which is supposed to be free being a value-added service, Gordon said the educational system can cope up with the demands of the times if only the telcos would yield to the provisions of the measure.

Government figures show that there are almost two billion text messages daily and the three telcos--Smart, Globe and Sun Cellular--have a combined annual revenue of P77 billion from text messaging alone or the Short Message System (SMS).

Gordon said the development of the country is a joint responsibility of the government, the private sector and the whole populace, which is the reason why everyone should take part in programs, such as the "text-for-change" bill, that aim to improve the country and its citizenry.