Students: Gov’t not spending enough on education – Cebu Daily News

Students: Gov’t not spending enough on education
Cebu Daily News
First Posted 12:15pm (Mla time) 06/10/2008

CEBU CITY, Philippines – A students’ group has blamed the country’s “poor” quality of education on the national government’s “inadequate” budget for education.

While the government spends billions on debt servicing, Youth Against Debt (YAD) pointed out that the budget for education under the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has not even reached international benchmarks.

Aaron Pedrosa, head of YAD, said the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has long recommended that developing countries should allocate six percent of its Gross National Product (GNP) to education.

This year, the government allocated 2.9 percent of the P7.2 billion gross national product (GNP) to education, Pedrosa said.

Pedrosa said the government has essentially “robbed” the youth of P1.6 trillion in recent years for failing to allocate six percent of the GNP to education.

YAD on Monday launched its “Six Will Fix” campaign to urge the government to bring up the GNP allocation for education to six percent.

In the annual budget, the government spent P624 billion to pay debts this year while only P181.86 went to education.

Pedrosa said this lack of funding for schools causes shortages in classrooms, books and teachers.

This lack of education manpower and facilities has led to the increase in out-of-school youth in recent years, he said.

Census data in 2003 revealed that there were 11.6 out-of-school youth in the country. /Correspondent Marian Z. Codilla