Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said Wednesday the Department of Education’s (DepEd) School Electrification Program would get an additional PHP500 million to boost the provision of electricity to unenergized or off-grid schools and modernize the electrical system of on-grid schools.
Gatchalian said the Senate Committee on Finance has accepted his proposal to increase the PHP1.295 billion allotted for the program under the Senate’s committee report on the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) for Fiscal Year 2025 (House Bill 10800).
“As we all know, some of our schools are still left in the dark and I would like to thank the Senate Committee on Finance for adding PHP500 million to the School Electrification Program,” Gatchalian said, as quoted in a news release.
While other countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia already achieved universal access, the Philippines still faces challenges in completing the electrification of schools.
Citing DepEd data, a 2024 research paper by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies found that 1,562 schools still had no electricity connection as of 2020. The study also found that as of 2020, a total of 39,335 schools needed an upgrade of their electrical connections.
A study published by the University of the Philippines Center for Integrative and Development Studies also found that, on average, energized elementary schools performed 12 percent better on the National Achievement Test (NAT) than schools that do not have electricity.
Secondary schools with electricity also performed 10 percent better than unenergized ones.
“Bago natin tuluyang maisulong ang mas malawakang pag-gamit ng teknolohiya sa ating mga paaralan, mahalagang tiyakin natin na may kuryente ang lahat ng ating mga paaralan. Kasabay ito ng ating pagsisikap na mabigyan ang ating mga paaralan ng dekalidad na pasilidad para sa kanilang pag-aaral (Before we can push for the wider use of technology in our schools, it is important the we make sure that all our schools have electricity. This is in line with our efforts to provide our schools with quality facilities for their studies),” Gatchalian added. (PNA)