The SPED program of DepEd bids goodbye on 2019?

By: Cedrix Perez

The Special Education program (SPED) of the Department of Education (DepEd) could be at stake after the Department of Budget and Management did not considered it included on the proposed 2019 National Expenditure Program (NEP).

A budget worth of 562 million for SPED has not been restored even with the appeals of DepEd to DBM.

In 2015 – 2016 school year, DepEd has recorded around 250,000 enrollees at elementary level and around 100,000 enrollees in highschool for SPED.

Instead, school dental health care program is a new line item in DepEd budget amounting 2.281 million and was included in the General Appropriations Act (GAA).

According to DepEd Undersecretary Annalyn Sevilla, they are eyeing the help of the local government units to help them continue the SPED program.

Sevilla also said that there are localities in Metro Manila, like Valenzuela City, which has a special education fund and education centers for their citizen who need this kind of help.

Also, DepEd Secretary Luz Briones added that the private sector and civil society groups were helping them to continue the program for special kids.

DepEd said that the budget for special education program of every school comes from the budget of the school for operation and expenses, that’s why they are doubling their efforts to look for more funding for the said program.

Meanwhile the 732 Billion proposed budget of DepEd cuts down to 527.714 billion, much lower than last year’s 579.419 NEP-Level budget for DepEd or 8.92% lower than the previous year’s allocation.

The Basic Education Facilities program have the highest decreased having 67.1% lower than the previous GAA based on the final NEP-level. This includes the building of classrooms, where in Metro Manila alone has 18,000 classroom backlogs. DepEd proposed a 116 Billion pesos for construction of classrooms and was only given a budget of 13 Billion.

Regarding the K + 12 program of DepEd, they said that they are working with the financial management for the program to speed up the financial movement for the needs of the senior highschool students. Also, they are also pursuing the improvement of the curriculum for Senior Highschool to become more effective and efficient that considers the 21st century skills, information and media literacy and basic science processes.

While education remains the topmost priority of the Duterte Administration for 2019, 3.8 million filipinos remain out of school based on 2016 Philippine Statistics Authority Survey.