Youths
push for bigger education budget
BY JEZZA NEPOMOCENO
ILOILO City – Some 2,000 youth activists
urged President Benigno Aquino III to prioritize education
by allotting it with a bigger budget.
“The educational system is already in
a state of calamity,” said Lean Redino Porquia, regional
chairperson of the Kabataan Partylist.
On Monday, activists here took to the streets
while Aquino delivered his first State of the Nation Address
in Congress.
Porquia said the government is not sincere
in making education a priority in the national budget.
He also said it lacks the political to address
the “elitist characteristic” of the Philippine
Congress.
Regine Manderico, vice president for Visayas
of the National Union of Students in the Philippines (NUSP),
said six percent of the total gross domestic product (GDP)
should be allocated for education in adherence to the United
Nations recommendation for Third World countries to develop
their educational system.
In the Philippines, Manderico said only two
percent of the GDP is allotted to education while military
expenditure enjoys four percent./PN
|
