The Department of Education (DepEd) will receive P1.015 trillion under the 2026 national budget signed by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., its largest allocation to date, including Retirement and Life Insurance Premiums.
Education Secretary Sonny Angara said the budget will fund classrooms and school facilities, school-based feeding, textbooks, learner subsidies, laptops for teachers and learners, additional teaching and non-teaching positions and teacher training.
DepEd will allocate P85.3 billion to address the country’s 165,000-classroom backlog. Of this amount, P65 billion is set for the construction of 24,964 new classrooms, while P7.7 billion is for the repair and rehabilitation of existing school buildings.
The department said it will continue to work with local government units and private sector partners through public-private partnerships for school building projects.
For learning materials, DepEd was allotted P19.5 billion for the production of textbooks and other resources. The department reported that it procured 105 textbook titles last year, an increase of 289 percent.
It also secured P10.6 billion for the DepEd Computerization Program to support digital tools and internet connectivity in public schools nationwide.
Teacher training will receive P4.6 billion to support the use of updated teaching methods in classrooms.