DBM releases P11.2B for basic school infrastructure

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has released P11.2 billion to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for the provision and maintenance of basic education facilities, including elementary and secondary schools, technical-vocational laboratories, and water and sanitation facilities.

The amount, sourced from the Department of Education’s (DepEd) Basic Education Facilities Fund in the 2016 General Appropriations Act (GAA), was released to the DPWH in accordance with their role as the official construction arm of the government.

“In 2014, we closed the classroom gap we inherited and we’ve built over 86,000 classrooms since 2010. This latest release is the next step toward ensuring that Filipino students have ample room to learn, given the implementation of the K-to-12 program and the growing population of students,” Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad said.

The funds release, broken down into four batches, saw P10.43 billion allotted to school buildings and P365 million to technical-vocational laboratories. While the infrastructure will be constructed by the DPWH, the DepEd will identify and prescribe the standards and specifications of these buildings.

“The DPWH and the DepEd will work together to design plans for these infrastructure projects. We want to ensure that any public works resulting from this release must be environment-friendly and built at an efficient cost,” Abad said.

Aside from the four batches of releases for education infrastructure, the DBM also released P523.56 million for the provision of school furniture, including desks and other fixtures, for newly constructed school buildings, with P300.4 million coming from the 2015 GAA and the remaining P223.2 million sourced from the current year’s budget.