Bigger budget in education is the most viable solution to the same old problems that hound the opening of classes.

This was announced by the Education Secretary Mona Valisno after receiving various reports regarding classroom shortages, lack of facilities, availability of teachers, and fee collection concerns in public elementary and secondary high schools nationwide.

Valisno said that the DepEd is eyeing a bigger budget in 2011, after it claimed to achieve the international 1:35 classroom-student ratio.

“We are confident that DepEd can provide all the needed classrooms in order for the country to keep up with the international norm.”

She also said that the DepEd is planning to propose a total of three billion pesos for SY 2011-2012 in order to address the common problems during school opening. “We will need more than 50,000 additional classrooms and we can we can only close the gap if we ask for a bigger budget in 2011.”

For this school year, DepEd has accepted an estimated one million new entrants to the public school system. “Each school year thus affecting any new increment in the budget allocated to the department,” Valisno explained.

Based on the data released by DepEd, the government has allocated a P253.95 billion budget for education for 2010 that includes the education budget of State Universities and Colleges (SUC), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), and Technical Education Skills Development Authority (TESDA).