SEN. Sherwin Gatchalian yesterday said the Senate Committee on Finance had accepted his recommendation to add P300 million to fund the purchase of textbooks and other learning materials for young learners.
He said the allocated budget for the programs will now reach P12.7 billion from the previous P12.4 billion under the 2025 proposed national budget of P6.352 trillion.
He said the increase in allocation will specifically benefit Grade 3 students.
“I thank the Senate Committee on Finance for approving the additional P300 million for the procurement of textbooks and other instructional materials,” Gatchalian said.
Aside from the budget increase, he said the government should streamline the procurement process to make sure that learners receive complete sets of textbooks.
He cited the Year One report of the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2) which showed that from 2012 to 2023, only 27 out of 90 textbook titles were purchased for Grades 1 to 10.
He said the EDCOM 2 report also noted that only students from Grades 5 and 6 have a complete set of textbooks for all their subjects.
He said the EDCOM 2 report has also flagged the low budget utilization for textbooks and other instructional materials since out of more than P12.6 billion allotted from 2018 to 2022, only around P4.47 billion or 35.3 percent was obligated and P951.9 million or 7.5 percent was disbursed.
Gatchalian said other issues concerning the procurement of textbooks include insufficient development time, high participation costs, prolonged review process, and pricing challenges.
He said the procurement process nowadays takes an average of three years when it should only take around 180 days.
“It is important to increase the funds for textbooks to ensure that every student will have their textbooks. We will continue to push for reforms towards quality education in the country,” he said.
The Senate last week approved on third and final reading its version of the proposed national budget.
Last Thursday, members of the bicameral conference committee of both chambers met, signaling the start of discussions on how to reconcile the differing provisions in the budget bill.
The bicam is set to hold another meeting this week and intends to approve the final version of the budget on the third week of December so it can be approved and signed by President Marcos Jr. before the year ends.
