DepEd gets around 55% of requested 2021 budget so far

The Department of Education (DepEd) said it got “around 55 percent” of its original proposed 2021 budget.

The education department secured a P605.7 billion funding for next year, lower than its proposed P1.1 trillion budget. The original P1,113,719,314 proposed budget has a P547-billion capital outlay to improve infrastructures in schools including washrooms and clinics given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, DepEd Undersecretary Annalyn Sevilla said.

“These are all in line with our plans for COVID Responsive Infrastructure of all the schools,” Sevilla said.

“However, we also know that the resources are limited for the 2021 budget and we got about 55 percent of our request,” she added.

Sevilla said DepEd has already completed the first two levels for its 2021 budget proposal.

For this year, DepEd has a P552.9 billion budget, this is 9.5 percent lower than the approved P605.7 billion budget for next year. The approved budget of DepEd for 2021 however still needs to undergo Senate scrutiny before it could be submitted to President Rodrigo Duterte for review and signature.

“We still don’t know how much is the approved budget because we are still waiting for the official communication from the Lower House after they are done with the third reading,” she said.

“Internally, DepEd held a post planning because we need to prepare for next year,” she explained. “We only have almost two months for this year so we need to plan the budget,” she added.

For now, Sevilla said that DepEd is working on a P605.7 billion budget for next year.

“Any changes in the lower house and changes in the Senate will be discussed and agreed upon in the bicam level,” she said.

“We are preparing and waiting for our final approval so we can also have final preparation for that year,” she added.