More Classrooms and Teachers, Better Internet at the Forefront of Bam Aquino's Budget Priorities

As lawmakers gear up to craft next year’s national budget, Senator Paolo Benigno "Bam" Aquino says he intends to pass a bill that would create a national fund for the construction of classrooms to close the gap in the country’s classroom needs. The senator, who won a fresh six-year term in the most recent midterm elections, also intends to push for funding to support teachers, better internet in classrooms, and amendments to the feeding program law.

“There’s been a lot of talk among ourselves that since we might be saving or we might be realigning the flood control budget, we hope to realign this for education,” he told Esquire Philippines in an interview.

The Department of Budget and Management earlier said that a total of P274.926 billion has been allocated for flood control projects next year, most of which will go to the Department of Public Work and Highways.

Philippine President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. has ordered a freeze on P60 billion to P80 billion of infrastructure funds in this year’s national budget, citing the need to act on “ghost projects.” The president was posturing for a tougher stance against dubious infrastructure spending especially amid concerns about corruption-ridden flood control and road projects.

Education has been Aquino’s primary platform in his senatorial campaign. He authored the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, which made tuition and other miscellaneous expenses free in state universities and colleges, and TESDA-accredited vocational institutions. The law, which Aquino was also the principal sponsor of, made college education more accesible to more Filipinos.

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“We intend to pass the Classroom Acceleration Program, or the bil that we are currently hearing,” the senator said. “We hope that it will be passed before the end of the year.

The proposed Classroom-Building Acceleration Act aims to authorize local government units and private sector entities with proven track records to build classrooms in compliance with public standards. It also aims to create a national fund to build these classrooms.

Education Secretary Sonny Angara earlier said that it could take up to more than half a century to resolve Manila’s massive 165,000 classroom backlog, which has been attributed to rapid population growth, aging infrastructure, and natural calamities.

The Philippines is also pressured to do something about Filipino students faring poorly in global learning assessments compared to their regional neighbors.

In the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), Filipino students were among the world’s weakest in mathematics, reading and science. The Philippines ranked 77th out of 81 countries in all categories, performing worse than the global average.

The Southeast Asian nation also ranked 63rd out of 64 countries in the OECD’s assessment that ranked 15-year-old students around the world in producing and evaluating original idea that would translate into effective solutions.

However, Filipino students placed 22nd out of 111 countries in the 2022 English Proficiency Index by Education First.

“We're also looking at supporting our teachers even more, internet connectivity in the schools, to amend the feeding program law, which we also passed in 2017-2018, and basically do all of these building blocks in our educational system,” said Senator Aquino. He also cited the need to look into reforming the K-12 system and to boost the employability of Filipino graduates.

“So we’ll begin with those building blocks first,” he said, referring to his education budget priorities.

Aquino also advocates for the School-to-Employment Program Act , which would establish the National Industry-Academe Council and corresponding Local Industry-Academe Councils to address job-skills mismatch and to provide decent employment.

The K-to-12 system was adopted after the passage of the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013, which added two more years to basic education with the aim to boost employability.

Last year, senators passed the Enterprise Based Education and Training Act or Republic Act No. 12063, which aims to bolster the connection between education and the private sector via specialized industry-based training programs for students and graduates.

Based on data from the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2), the Philippines has one of the shortest lengths of apprenticeships in the world at a cap of around six months. Looking at its neighbors, the maximum length of apprenticeships is 12 months in Malaysia, 24 months in Cambodia, and even 72 months in Singapore.

According to the World Economic Forum, two-thirds of employers in the Philippines flagged skills gaps as a roadblock to growth in the next five years, showing the need for enhanced state and private sector reskilling efforts.

Maria Ella Calaor-Oplas, an economics professor who specializes in human capital development research at De La Salle University, said it is crucial for lawmakers to spare teachers from administrative work to boost productivity.

“Regarding teachers, they should not just focus on raising salaries but it is important to train them and to deload them from the excess administrative tasks such as teacher’s reports, which tend to make them overwhelmed and unproductive,” she told Esquire Philippines in an online exchange.

Calaor-Oplas also cited the necessity to update the outdated and erroneous learning materials still being used in public schools.

Sen. Bam wants ban on online gambling

Senator Aquino also renewed his call to ban online gambling amidst concerns of its harmful effects on regular Filipino citizens. The goal is to outlaw this activity now more than ever,  he said.

“The bill that will be filed is to ban online gambling in general. So we'll support that first. And that will also include the schools, of course,” he said. “So we don't just want to ban it in schools, we want to ban it outright.”

Earlier this month, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas ordered all electronic wallets and other financial institutions to unlink their platforms from gambling websites.

Philippine legislators have filed several bills that seek to monitor and restrict online gambling, such as blocking the use of e-wallets that make it easier for Filipinos to place bigger and faster bets. Some of the proposals also want online gambling itself outlawed.

E-wallet platforms Gcash and Maya backed by industry leaders Globe and PLDT, respectively, have said they would comply with the order to unlink from gambling services.

These platforms have services catering to gambling apps for convenient access, which has added to the popularity of e-gambling.