QUANTIFYING FINANCIAL REQUIREMENTS IN ENHANCING

THE EDUCATION SECTOR’S CONTRIBUTION TO ECONOMIC

AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

ANDREW JOSEPH D. AQUINO

Read each definition to find the
answer to word puzzle.

QUAN T I F Y
express or measure
the quantity of.
Read each definition to find the
answer to word puzzle.

E D U CA T I ON
It is the process of receiving
or giving systematic
instruction, especially at a
school or university.
Read each definition to find the
answer to word puzzle.

F I NANC E
the management of large
amounts of money,
especially by governments
or large companies.
Read each definition to find the
answer to word puzzle.

WE L F A R E
the health, happiness, and
fortunes of a person or
group.
Read each definition to find the
answer to word puzzle.

COHO R T
a group of people banded
together or treated as a
group.
POPULATION AGE COHORT
At 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
barangays, 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 Secondary
In 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 Schooling
The 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 make more
noticeable 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 must 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
Grade 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 must 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 must 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 Equipment 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 and 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 services
❖ Planning Services
❖ Budget
❖ Cash Management, treasury and payroll
services
❖ National Education Testing and Research
Center
❖ Records
❖ Physical facilities
❖ Teacher’s camp
❖ National Educator’s Academic of the
Philippines