Historic P1.015 Trillion Education Budget: A Mix of Relief and Scrutiny for Philippine Schools
The announcement of a P1.015 trillion budget for the Department of Education (DepEd) in the Philippines evokes a powerful emotional response—it feels like a national apology with commas, a rescue mission for a system stretched thin. Yet, this historic allocation, the largest in DepEd's history, is met with both relief and suspicion. For many, the reaction begins not in the halls of Congress or Malacañang, but in the early morning corridors of public schools, where teachers wipe boards that never fully turn white and children ask for spare paper as if it were a luxury.
Government's Comprehensive Approach
The government outlines a straightforward narrative: this massive budget funds a comprehensive strategy aimed at improving learning outcomes and narrowing educational gaps. Key allocations include addressing a reported 165,000-classroom backlog through new construction and repairs, expanding school-based feeding programs to millions of learners, enhancing procurement of learning materials, strengthening digital tools and connectivity, and hiring thousands of teaching and support positions, such as school counselor associates.
On paper, these line items appear to heed the long-standing pleas of teachers who have waited in faculty rooms with electric fans sounding like tired engines. Classrooms, nutrition, and teacher support are not trivial matters; they are foundational. Anyone who has witnessed a hungry student struggle to read understands how learning recovery can devolve into mere survival.
Analysts Question the Celebration
However, the moment we treat this budget as automatic progress is when we risk neglecting the critical Pinoy question: Saan mapupunta? (Where will it go?). This query gained urgency when analysts, including the People's Budget Coalition, challenged the administration's celebration of hitting the Unesco spending benchmark for education. They argue that the math relies on including items outside core education agencies and local funds like the Special Education Fund, effectively widening the goalpost to meet targets.
Their concern is not about reducing education funding but about transparency. If we accept the trillion-peso figure as proof of priority without scrutiny, we may relax prematurely. Instead, treating it as a promise requiring verification maintains necessary pressure—pressure that hardens concrete, enforces procurement deadlines, and transforms soon into actual dates rather than vague seasons.
Structural Challenges and Teacher Scapegoating
Often, when the system fails, teachers become the easiest scapegoats. Yet, any educator attempting to teach reading comprehension to a class of fifty knows the real bottlenecks are structural. The first test of this budget's efficacy is visible and measurable: classrooms that exist, are safe, and are functional. DepEd's infrastructure push, while unglamorous, is foundational. A repaired roof isn't a photo opportunity; it's the difference between continuing a lesson and canceling it due to rain. Every completed classroom represents a quiet moral victory, but public vigilance is crucial to prevent good intentions from dying in change orders, ghost deliveries, or superficially complete projects.
Nutrition, Technology, and Teacher Welfare
The second test focuses on nutrition, as learning cannot thrive on empty stomachs. Hunger can turn bright children into quiet shadows. DepEd's expanded school-based feeding program is a practical component of the 2026 plan, treating learning as something a body must sustain. However, this initiative must be guarded through real procurement, delivery, and monitoring to ensure meals are more than just accomplishments on paper.
Technology presents another challenge. Distributing devices without addressing weak internet or providing adequate training can render laptops expensive paperweights. Success lies in unglamorous details: appropriate specifications, teacher training, repairs, and lesson designs resilient to signal loss. If teachers report benefits after a month, the effort has worked.
Teacher welfare is equally practical. More teaching positions, administrative staff, and counselor associates can return valuable time to educators, reducing paperwork and allowing more focus on teaching and student well-being beyond worksheets.
Monitoring for Real Results
Will this budget fix the system? Only if we monitor it as diligently as a family budget. Instead of applauding the purchase, we must check the results: Did everyone eat? Did learning improve? Did waste shrink? The hope is simple: learners reading by Grade 3, teachers no longer spending out of pocket, and schools that no longer normalize hunger and overload. A trillion pesos is impressive, but learning is the true proof of its success.
