Press Release
June 22, 2011

ANGARA: EXPLORE ALTERNATIVE WAYS TO
ADDRESS EDUCATION SECTOR'S NEEDS

Chicago, Illinois - As the new school year comes into full swing, Senator Edgardo J. Angara urged the administration to provide for the growing needs of the country's educational system through creative means.

"We need to maximize the assets that are already ours, instead of scrambling to get more funding elsewhere, which we know will take a lot of time," he said.

According to Angara, a lot of untapped sources of funding are available to the government, such as grants and allocations which are poorly managed.

"One example is the allocation for the country's special education, easily billions in funding every year which is not spent properly. This may be steered towards a more useful purpose like temporarily rechanneling it into school-building, hiring and training teachers," he explained.

Angara, chair of the Senate Committee on Education, Arts and Culture, added that the Department of Education should maximize its existing properties to help fill the infrastructure gap.

"There are many schools in urban centers owned by DepEd which we can maximize. To address the problem of classroom shortage, for example, the solution seems fairly simple: let's build multi-storey school buildings instead of flat bungalow types to accommodate more students," said Angara.

To build these new classrooms, Angara suggested that the government should tap local construction companies that are willing to go into a build-now-pay-later agreement with the government.

"We must not forget that the basic infrastructure is a primary need for the country's educational system. We can address this need through tie-ups with local contractors. I believe some Filipino construction firms are interested in dealing with the government, willing to accept deferred payments in order to provide a venue for learning for our children," he said.

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