SENATE President Pro Tempore Sherwin Gatchalian said the government has earmarked P19.5 billion for the procurement of textbooks and other instructional materials to achieve a 1:1 textbook-to-learner ratio in public schools nationwide.
This, he said, marks a significant increase from the five-year average budget of P5.475 billion for textbooks and instructional materials from 2021 to 2025.
”Aside from having enough classrooms, having a complete set of books is also one of the priorities we should give to our students. Books are their basic need, and it is our duty to ensure that they are not lacking,” Gatchalian said.
The senator emphasized that access to individual textbooks is essential to improving learning outcomes and ensuring that students have the necessary resources to support their studies.
The increased funding comes amid findings from the 2024 Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics, which highlighted the impact of textbook availability on student performance. The regional assessment found that learners who do not have their own textbooks or who share them with other students score, on average, five points lower in reading proficiency than those with individual copies.
Data from the same study showed that while 52 percent of Grade 5 learners have their own textbook, 42-percent share a textbook with at least one other learner, underscoring the continuing challenge of resource shortages in classrooms.
Education advocates have long pointed to inadequate learning materials as one of the factors affecting student achievement. The Department of Education’s efforts to provide sufficient textbooks are expected to complement ongoing initiatives to address classroom shortages, improve teaching resources and strengthen basic education outcomes. JAVIER JOE ISMAEL
