QUANTIFYING FINANCIAL REQUIREMENTS IN ENHANCING THE

EDUCATION SECTOR’S CONTRIBUTION TO

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

From the macro level, the quantification of the financial requirements for the provision of adequate educational logistics to enhance the sector’s contribution to economic and social development requires an analysis of the population age cohort of school bound pupils. In addition to the analysis of school-age cohort, there has to be a decision as to the provision of preschool education, and the need to meet the developmental requirements in all levels of education in pre-school, elementary and secondary education, as well as the requirement for post secondary education and training that has standards expected of society and the world economy.

POPULATION AGE COHORTAt the age of 2, a child enters pre-

school level.At the age of 6, a child enters Grade

I level in public school. Through this, one may provide

an estimate of enrollment in pre- school education and grade I across the baranggays, towns, school districts, school divisions, regions and the whole country.

PRE SCHOOL EDUCATION

Pre-school education is very important for a society to nurture the precocious talent of its children. In addition, in pre-school education the objective should be not only to provide mental feeding but also to assure the children of much-needed basic needs, especially food and nutrition, which are sadly wanting in poor families.

When the child is already at the age 6, it will be too late for such an intervention to protect his or her health.

By age 6, innate talent is already lost because of malnutrition.

If the country wants to look after the welfare of its children and ensure the children of poor families can compete with other children when they enter Grade I, then there has to be pre- school education with provisions for a supplementary feeding program.

Pre-school is one of the country's major challenges, which should be included in the development programs of the national government for which funding must be provided.

DEVELOPMENTAL PROGRAMS Pre-school education

Pre-school education should be of high priority.

But in view of the private and social benefits of pre-school education, there should be a variety of approaches according to the socio-economic level of the parents.

What should be made is that the government should support the lowest 30% of the families. Alternative programs for those who belong to the upper 70% should be designed to meet the needs of the children and the predilections of their families.

Participation Rates in Elementary and SecondaryIn many developed countries, children up to a certain age are required to stay in school. Unfortunately, in the Philippines, even at the elementary level, participation rate has reach highs of only 96.95% in 1999-2000 and 96.4% in 2000-2001. In the high school, the participation rate is much lower with the highest level in 2000-2001 being 72.25%.

Out of School Youth Out of School Youth are those who dropped

out on the participation rate. With the high rate of dropouts, there were

4.684 million of out-of-school youths (OSY) in 1994, 29.80% were without any schooling whatsoever, 26.99% were at the elementary level, and 34.52% were at the high school level., for a total of 4.277 million or 91.31% who should be provided with elementary and secondary education. The rest were of post-secondary educational level and they were at the age to be in the work force.

What we can done for those people ,is to find some alternative for them to be able to continue with their education, if they so desire.

Cognitive Outcomes of SchoolingThe cognitive outcome of schooling has

not been satisfactory with only a little over 50% learned by the pupils.

With this performance level, the average college-bound students are not prepared for higher education. Thus, the first two years of tertiary education are really an extension of high school education.

Such an academic reality in pre-collegiate education has some cumulative effect on the tertiary and higher education, which will accentuate the disparity in the quality of higher education graduates in the country, compared to those of the higher developed countries.

To improve the level of cognitive outcome in elementary and secondary level education, there has to be a purposive development programs, which will determine what are the variables that will improve cognitive outcomes. Most likely, these are the quality teachers, the kind of textbooks and the learning materials available to the pupils, the school and the learning environment and the kind of management in school and others.

Studies shown that teachers are the critical variable in the enhancement of learning.

Teacher Enhancement Programs

The quality of teachers is very important explanatory variable of the outcomes of schooling. The study of Dr. Eduardo Canlas of Mindanao Polytechnic State College in Cagayan de Oro concluded that in test administered to both teachers and students, the score of the teachers is just about as high as the pupils and in some areas, the score of the pupils is higher than the performance of the teachers. An earlier study of Bro. Andrew Gonzales of De La Salle University and Dr. Bonifacio Sibayan concluded that the quality of the teachers from Grade I-IV are quite acceptable. But beyond Grade IV, the quality is highly questionable. According to them, The achievement capabilities of Graed VI are that of Grade IV and Second Year high school students are on the level of Grade VI.

In public schools, there is also a scheme of teaching multi-grade classes caused by the lack of teachers and the small enrolment level in some remote areas. Such scheme is highly challenging to teachers.

Because of inadequate finding, there are not enough teacher items in the budget to hire teachers. In view of the shortage of teacher items, substitute teachers are hired, or some classes are being handled by education students who are on practice teaching.

In the past, teachers’ low salaries had been cited as the reason for poor performance. Still, their salary is not sufficient to place the average teacher’s salary at a professional level.

Based on the problems and difficulties that had mentioned, the following are some suggested developmental programs:

There has to be an intensive training in subject area competencies for them to possess the required knowledge they can pass on the pupils. This means that in-service training should be intensive and the pre-service should be improved.

Adequate budgets should be provided in order that there would be available teacher items to hire the required number and to further increase the salary of the teachers commensurate to the pay of professionals.

New technology in enhancing the capabilities of teachers should be introduced. With new technology, such as the use of the internet training delivery system.

Textbook, Library and Learning Resources

Under the Program for Decentralized Elementary Education Development (PRODEED) and Secondary Education Development Program (SEDP) in the 80’s and early 90’s,textbooks were produced. By this time, replacements have to be made and the present leadership is addressing the problem. However, There has to be an assessment to determine the quality of the textbook produced, the extent of sufficiency of the textbooks and library and learning materials to enhance cognitive outcomes of schooling.

o Classroom,Laboratory Equiptment and Open Space

In view of the enrolment in public elementary and secondary education, there is a perennial problem of shortage of classrooms, inadequate laboratory equipment and lack of open space. There has to be an assessment on this aspect to work towards a long term solution on this problem. It is important that the students have the joy of having a conducive environment for learning, which is a very important variable to enhance the cognitive outcomes of schooling.

FINANCIAL PROJECTION OF PUBLIC ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION

Get the listing of all public elementary and secondary schools and their corresponding enrolment rates, teachers ad inventories of desks, books, and other educational logistics.

With the enrolment for each school, quantify the following: Teacher requirements and the corresponding

teacher’s salary required, including merit increases and across-the-board salary adjustments.

The cost of conducting teacher’s enrichment, in-service program and programs for higher degrees of teachers.

Textbook requirements. Desks, tables, and chairs

Audio-visual requirements Library books and non-book learning materials Maintenance and operating expenses, such as

light, water, supplies, chalk, pencils, and other office supplies.

Requirements to maintain the home economics, gardening and workshop facilities, and the laboratory requirements for high school.

Maintenance of the open spaces,physical education facilities and school beautification program.

o Consolidate the requirements of the individual school into districts and make the district supervisor responsible for the preparation, implementation and evaluation and monitoring of the district budget.

In the school district office, prepare the budget for maintenance and operating expenses of the district such as the following : Maintenance and operating expenses of

the district learning and resource center such as the salary of the clerk in the district office, office equipment and supplies.

District testing program and assessment. District travel and monitoring expenses in

connection with the academic supervision of the district.

o Consolidate the budgets of all the districts into the division budget and make the superintendent responsible for the preparation, implementation and, evaluation and monitoring of the division budget.

In the division office, undertake (1) a review of the aggregate enrollment projection. Analyze the enrolment projection in relation to the trend in participation rates in elementary and high school and the targeted participation rates in elementary and high school and , (2) a review of the achievement levels of pupils in elementary and secondary education, and design a corresponding intervention program to improve achievements and ,the performance of the division.

Prepare the division budget for maintenance and operation expenses of the division such as the following. The operation of the division and the

corresponding salaries and wages of the personnel in the operation.

Monitoring and supervisory expenses of the superintendents in the evaluation and assessment of the division.

Light and water and other operating expenses of the division.

Implementation, monitoring and supervision of various developmental programs of the division.

Identification and quantification of various strategic interventions to enhance learning in the division such as the following: • Pre-school • Assessment programs to gauge the extent of

learning going on in the school system. • Special programs to take care of the depressed

schools in the division.

• Health and nutrition programs• Population-education programs• School feeding• Special programs for the slow learners ad the

high achievers• Developmental programs to enhance the

administrative and managerial capabilities of the school principals, academic and district supervisors, and the classroom management of the teachers.

o Consolidate the division budget and in the Regional office, analyze the budget in relation to the participation rate target of the region and the inter-divisional achievement levels.

Having taken into this account these two aspects, prepare the budget for the region with the addition

of the requirements of the Regional office operating

budget such as the following : Financial Operation Elementary and secondary education Non-formal education Sports and culture Administrative and security Assessment and evaluation School health and nutrition

Consolidate the Regional Budget and analyze it, taking into account the enrolment levels in relation to the targeted participation rate and the achievement levels and performance of the various regions in relation to the educational thrust as contained in the National Medium Term Plan. Then prepare the budget of the Central Administration which consists of the following:

Office of the Secretary Bureau of Elementary Education Bureau of Secondary education Bureau of Non-formal education Sports Bureau Population Education School health and Nutrition

Administrative servicesPlanning ServicesBudgetCash Management, treasury and payroll

servicesNational Education Testing and Research

CenterRecordsPhysical facilitiesTeacher’s campNational Educator’s Academic of the

Philippines