ADMINISTRATION OF SCHOOL FINANCING

I. Introduction

Since public education was established in the Philippines from the time of the Americans until
now, the funding of public schools has always been shouldered mostly by the National Government as it
appropriates funds to national, provincial and municipal schools. RA 232 otherwise known as The
Education Act of 1982 reiterates that practice. Chapter 5, Section 34 states that “ Public school shall
continue to be funded from national funds.” Generally, municipalities and barangays shall continue to
appropriate funds in their annual budgets for the operation and maintenance of public secondary
schools. With the turn to the K-12 program of the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 (RA 10533) of
the DepEd, after its signing into law by President Benigno Aquino III, funding on its initial operations
shall be shouldered by the current budget of the Department of Education (still coming from the
National Government) (Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office and
PREGINET, 2013). How will the national government mitigate the needs of public schools in the
Philippines whereas the country’s combined foreign and domestic debts alone amounts to P4.712
trillion (Freedom from Debt Coalition, 2011)? Obviously, the country needs a lot of “austerity measures”
in its educational sector to cover for the lack of funds coming from the DepEd’s budget.

II. Highlights

 Sources of Government Income for Education

 Support for Elementary Education
 Support for Public Secondary Schools
 Support of Public Schools in Chartered Cities
 Support of Vocational Schools
 Support of Normal Schools
 Support of Special Schools
 Support of Chartered Government Colleges and Universities
 Other Agencies Helping in the Financing of Public Schools
 Support for Private Schools
 Expenditure of Funds of Private Educational Institutions
 Conclusion
 Recommendation

III. Sources of Government Income for Education

 In the Philippines there is no specific education tax; there is no law assigning part of
whole of an income for school purposes except for the Special Education Fund (where an
additional one percent tax on real property is added for this purpose, as per Presidential
Decree No. 464)
 The amount given for education depends upon the good will and graces of the municipal
councils, provincial board and Congress of the Philippines.
 Non-payment of teachers’ salaries arises in some instances.
 Causes of which are poverty of the municipality/province or in a few cases - political
bickering.
 The National Government comes to the rescue and usually grants special nation aid to
the needy entities.
 General Sources of Government Income for Education:
1. Taxes imposed by law (e.g. real property tax and import and export taxes).
2. Tuition Fees
 3. Matriculation Fees
4. Rental for lease of school sites and sales of school products
5. Land grants and donations (UP derives income from land given by the
National government)
6. Voluntary contributions (usually from parents of pupils)
7. Special Fees (usually from college students; income from entrance exams,
registration, library and other special fees)

IV. Support for Elementary Education

 Commonwealth Act 586 (Education Act of 1940)

o Nationalized the support of all elementary schools in municipalities and
municipal districts.
o This law abolished the share of municipalities and the municipal districts in the
internal revenue collections, percentage taxes on agricultural products and
income tax accruing to the general fund.
o Acquisition of school sites and construction of temporary school buildings
remain the responsibility of the local governments.
 Before Commonwealth 586…
o Elementary schools were jointly supported by the national and local
government (2/3 for the government and 1/3 for the local government)
o Poor municipalities were given special aids by the government.
 Part of support mentioned to support the K-12 program in the public elementary and
high school levels would be coming from the Department of Social Welfare and
Development (DSWD) who is tasked to support the education agenda through the
provision of CCT grants to extremely poor households (Mabunga, 2011):
o The government’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) program under the Pantawid
Pamilyang Pilipino Program’ (4Ps) by President Aquino is meant to “improve the
health, nutrition and education particularly of children aged 0-14. 
o A child is entitled a P3,000 cash per school year or 10 months or P300/month
for educational expenses.
o A maximum of three children per household is allowed. 
o To qualify for the educational cash grants, beneficiaries’ 3-5 year old children
must attend day care or pre-school classes and 6-14 year old children must
enroll in elementary or high school at least 85% of the time.

V. Support for Public Secondary Schools

 Funding is provided by provincial and city governments.

 Majority of provinces do not have adequate funds to support their high school properly.
 Sources of provincial income:
1) Internal revenue allotments from national government
2) Share from local taxes
3) Fees from service rendered
4) Income from miscellaneous receipts
 Major portion of the support comes from tuition and matriculation fees levied by the
Provincial board.
 RA 3478, the National government has been granting annual national aid to general
provincial and municipal high schools since SY 1963-1964.
  The National aid given is in proportion of the yearly enrollment.

VI. Support of Public Schools for Chartered Cities

 Supported from tuition fees and city funds (derived from special taxes and internal revenue
taxes)
 SUCs or Chartered schools lamented the Philippine government's inadequate financial aid
hence these schools impose enrolment quotas and increased fees these recent years
(Wikipedia, 2013).
 All cities in the Philippines have definite funds for school purposes.
 The National Government allots lump sums as aid.
 Another source is the National Aid (aid is primarily for the salary adjustment of teachers and
other secondary personnel)

VII. Support of Vocational Schools

 Two Categories: provincial trade school and provincial agricultural school.

 All vocational schools must be nationalized since the enactment of RA 948 in 1954.
 Sources of income now are national contribution, tuition fees and income from school
products.
 Funding for Technical Vocational and Training (TVET) in the Philippines is shared between
three major economic agents (Peano and others, 2008):
1) Public Administrators (includes the local government)
2) Trainees who pay fees to public or private providers
3) Companies that pay fees to public or private providers (usually under the Dual
Training System or apprenticeship or learnership schemes)
 Donation from other countries (e.g. P4.4-million worth of donations from Korea to Technical
Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA)) (PIA, 2013).

VIII. Support of Normal Schools

 A normal school is a school created to train high school graduates to be teachers. Its
purpose is to establish teaching standards or norms, hence its name (Wikipedia, 2013).
 Regional normal schools (e.g. (Philippine Normal University, Silliman University, Central
Philippine University, Cebu Normal School) are like national schools.
 Supported jointly by students and by national, provincial and municipal government.

IX. Support of Special Schools

 The Philippine Nautical School in Pasay City offers courses for employment as merchant
marine officers.
 Supported by the National Government
 A school for the Deaf and Blind under the Bureau of Public Schools is supported almost
entirely by the National Government with occasional help from the Philippine Charity
Sweepstakes.

X. Support of Chartered Government Colleges and Universities

 Chartered schools are the University of the Philippines, Central Luzon State University,
Philippine Normal College and the Philippine College of Arts and Trades
 Support comes from tuition fees of students and the national funds allocated by Congress.
XI. Other Agencies Helping in the Financing of Public Schools

 Agencies that give material aid to schools:

o NEC
o UNICEF
o American Foundation for the Deaf and Blind
o Pilot Applied Nutrition Project

XII. Support for Private Schools

 Generally support is coming from tuition and miscellaneous fees of students.

 There is no law prescribing the maximum rate of tuition fees.
 Quality schools with good standards among religious institutions charge relatively higher
rates than ordinary schools.
 Religious schools are partly supported by their properties.

XIII. Expenditure of Funds of Private Educational Institutions

 Payment of salaries of the teaching staff and administrative personnel.
 Maintenance of buildings and grounds.

XIV. Conclusion

The observations above show that the Philippine sources of school financing are mostly from
the National Budget – which, despite its growth in the latter years with the programs put forth by
President Aquino, still falls short to fully satisfy the educational needs of Filipinos. Education and
government officials claim that this school year 2013, “public school students can already look forward
to having their own textbooks and chairs…as there would be a "zero backlog" in textbooks and school
furniture” (Santos, 2012). Experience in most public schools proves otherwise. But not to be
pessimistic, recent years show that there is really sustained growth in our national government’s
allotment for education: 175 billion pesos in 2010, 207 billion pesos in 2011, 238.8 billion in 2012, 292.7
billion pesos in 2013 and 336.9 billion pesos projected for 2014 (see Mabunga, 2011, Education
International, 2012, Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office and
PREGINET, 2013). Things really look good however, despite the improvements still the Philippine
government falls short of the United Nations’ standard to “spend at least six percent of the GDP on
education” (Quismundo, 2012). Still the Philippines place is on the lower levels of educational
international standards (Casauay, 2012).

XV. Recommendations

The recent improvement in our country’s educational allotment of funds and the reforms
brought forth by the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 are positive signs that the Philippines may
very well be on its way to economic recovery and later on to economic vitality. One cannot deny that
there is growth to the attention being received by the educational sector compared to how it was 30
years ago. It is therefore this report’s recommendation to help the government in its “austerity
measures.” Teachers, students and parents can help shoulder the lack of funding of our public schools.
Simple gestures of help like donation of books for our libraries, used computers for our classrooms,
trash cans, flower pots and garden plants for our school yards – all of these and the likes regardless of
how little they are can help the government and our local schools shoulder the burden of quality
education. Teachers need to be vigilant of what is going on in the government and avoid passivity in our
local school’s programs. Teachers need to first of all act as leaders by articulating their thoughts about
what is going on in our local schools. Teacher and students can start writing articles to help our schools
by publishing the needs of the school and the events thereof. This can be done by submitting articles to
local newspaper editors, voicing out the needs and activities of our schools in social media (Facebook,
Twitter and the likes) or even by just simply starting a blog – the internet is everywhere nowadays.
Lastly, teachers need to remind themselves everyday that 30 years ago – teacher salary shouldered by
the municipal government was very menial and add insult to injury, was often late. Now teacher salary
alone has taken the biggest cut in DepEd’s budget allocation. This is a very welcome change –
something we know teachers prayed about in the past.

References

Aquino, GV and Naval, M. (1971). Administration and Supervision for Philippine Schools. Alemar:
Philippines

Casauay, Angela (2012). House approves K-12 bill on final reading: Rappler Beta posted on November
19, 2012 Downloaded on August 10, 2012 from http://www.rappler.com/nation/16408-house-
approves-k-12-bill-on-final-reading

Freedom from Debt Coalition. Prospects under P-Noy: Decoding Aquino’s PDP. September 2011.

Mabunga, Renato G. (2011). The Education Budget [2011 Philippine Education Situation: Last of 3part
series] Downloaded from http://renatomabunga.wordpress.com/2011/12/20/the-education-
budget-2011-philippine-education-situation-last-of-3part-series/ on August 9, 2013

Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office and PREGINET (2013). Republic
Act No. 10533. Downloaded from http://www.gov.ph/2013/05/15/republic-act-no-10533/ on
August 9, 2013

Peano and others (2008). Investment in Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in the
Philippines. UNESCO: Paris p. 19

Philippine Information Agency (2013). Tech-voc training gets boost from Korea: Information to
Empower Filipinos downloaded from http://www.pia.gov.ph/news/index.php?
article=1781358767673 on August 9, 2013

Quismundo,Tarra (2012). Philippine education spending still below UN standard: Inquirer Global Nation
Downloaded from http://globalnation.inquirer.net/31229/philippine-education-spending-still-
below-un-standard on August 9, 2013

Santos, Reynaldo Jr. (2012). K to 12 education program launched. Rappler Beta. Downloaded from
http://www.rappler.com/nation/4298-malacanang-launches-k-to-12-program on August 10,
2013