Another education-sector problem marking the Arroyo years is the severe shortage of classrooms.
DepEd data show that using the ideal teacher-to-student ratio of 1:25, there was a shortage of 8,443 classrooms during the school year 2001-2002. Citing recent DepEd figures, former Education Undersecretary Juan Manuel Luz said the country currently suffers from a shortage of 74,115 classrooms, going by the ideal teacher-to-student ratio.
The teacher-to-student ratio is a measurement standard that is limited in that it does not accurately reflect the actual breakdowns in the numbers of teachers and students for every school, Tinio said.
“Ballooning class sizes were highlighted under Arroyo’s presidency,” Tinio said. “Before Arroyo, the usual class size of 50 was already big. But under Arroyo’s presidency, it reached up to 60-70, and in some cases even 80, especially in the urban areas.”
“This is due to Arroyo’s strict adherence to the World Bank-imposed policy of not increasing the real budget for education,” Tinio pointed out. “Nominally, it increases annually, but in real terms it does not increase.”
Interest payments for foreign debt have historically taken up 48 to 49 percent of the annual national budget. The 2009 budget allots P681.5 billion ($14.4 billion) on interest payments on debts and only P189.1 billion ($4 billion) for education – with P167.9 billion ($3.5 billion) going to the DepEd and P22.6 billion ($478 million) going to state universities and colleges.
Tinio warned that with the Philippines being affected by the global financial crisis, the government could come up with excuses for further reducing spending on education and other social services. “We have to be vigilant and make sure that the crisis will not be used as a reason for further undermining the education sector,” he said.
Arroyo was first sworn into office in January 2001, following a popular uprising that deposed Joseph Estrada. She was declared as the winner in the highly contested 2004 elections. Since then, her administration has been rocked by scandals involving corruption. Her opponents tried several times to unseat her, but failed. Her regime, particularly the military, has also been accused of murdering hundreds of activists. (Bulatlat.com)
