AN EDUCATION department official on Wednesday said the 2025 funding allotted for the Department of Education’s (DepEd) computerization program is insufficient.
“The present allocation of P2.4 billion would not even enable the DepEd to handle the mandatory need [for its computerization program], which amounts to P3.9 billion,” Marvin Dela Cruz, DepEd’s Technology Infrastructure Division chief, told lawmakers during a House of Representatives hearing.
It would cost the Education department P3.9 billion to fund “software and cloud subscription for all teachers and learners, capacity-building, [and] operation and personal expenses,” he added.
The Philippines Congress decided to cut DepEd’s computerization program fund for 2025 by about P10 billion, slashing it by 80.3% to P2.43 billion, according to Budget department documents.
The originally proposed P12 billion funding for this year would’ve been used to buy laptops and smart televisions (P7 billion), satellite-based internet devices (P1.5 billion), software subscriptions (P2.4 billion), and capacity-building purposes (P1.5 billion), according to DepEd’s presentation to the House basic education panel.
About P2.45 billion worth of laptops and smart televisions are now in the final process of procurement as of Jan. 13, owing to the agency’s “strategic use of early procurement activities,” the presentation stated.
“This alone would eat up the P2.4 billion appropriated for the whole ICT (information and communications technology) budget of the DepEd,” it added. — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio