House Bill No. 6614

Title

House Bill No. 6614

Creator

Reyes, Jose C.

Language

English

Year

1958

Subject

Philippines. Congress. House Bill No. 6614.

Secondary schools – Finance.

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

House Bill No. 6614 HOUSE Bill No. 6614 appropriating P3,028,000.00 for the adjustment of salaries of public secondar~' school and city intermediate teachers lapsed into a law on June 22, 1957. The late President Magsaysay promised to sign the bill if Congress passed it during his term. President Carlos P. Garcia kept faith with the late president when he allowed it to lapse into a law. Lately, President Garcia directed acting budget commissioner Sy-Changco to release the amount so that salaries of teachers and other school personnel in the general high schools and intermediate teachers in chartered cities may be adjusted. The House Bill 6614 shall stay in our history of financing public secondary ei;Iucation as the first st~p towards the approvai of a scheme of financing envisioned in the Foundation Program. The bill is a ne\v trend in financing public secondary education. PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOL FINANCING TRACED Public secondary school financing in the P.hilippines may be traced from March 6, 1902, when the Philippine Commission passed .Act No. 3721 which. amended Act No. 83 entitled "A General Act for the Organization of Provincial Govemments in the Philippine Islands," a portion of -which authorized the provincial boards: "To provide, if deemed expedient by the provincial board, by construction or purchase, or renting, such school building . . . to be used ,for the free secondary instruction of pupils resident in the province, such secondary instruction being understood to include, in addition to academic instruction i'n agriculture, and normal-school instruction, and to _provide for the payment of all expenses of maintaining such public school or schools of secondary instruction as may be established in the province ... Dr. Benigno Aldana in his book "The Philippine Public Schools: Their Admi,nistration and Financing," said: PAGE 60 By Jose C. Reyes "During the school y;ear 1954-1955, there were 284 general secondary schools scattered all over the country from Batanes to Sulu. Of this number, 16 or 5.6% were municipal high schools; 20 or 7.1 '1' were city high schools; 248 or 87.3% were provincial high schools located in the capitals of provinces, in big towns or in _isolated islands and remote places. On the basis of number, it may be safe to sav that the general secondary reach more pe~ple than all other secondary schools put together. For this reason, if for no other, the general secondary school occupies a position of high strategic importance, so to speak in our scheme of pu"Qlic education." Dr. Aldana gives unsatisfactory or inadequate financing as the foremost problem of public secondary schools. There is no specific provision of law requiring the provincial government to set aside a part of its revenues for the support of the general secondary schools. The law merely authorizes the transfer of funds, through provincial board, from the 'general fund of the province to the school fund. As a consequence of this policy, the _giving of aid to these schools has been dependent upon the pleasure of ·the provincial board, the city council, or the municipal council concerned. Because of the apparent indifference of the Department of Finance in allowing government a.id to the general high schools, only limited amounts, if any have been set aside by local governments for the maintenance of public schools. In several cases, appropriations previously earmarked as aid to high schools have been disapproved by the Secretary of Finance who usuru.ly mentioned, among other things, the fact ·that such amounts could b~ pf greater use for such projects as roads and bridges. Almost invariablv this official recommended that the schools incre~~e their tuition fees in order to be able to raise the needed amount with which to balance their budget.· THE PHILIPPINE EDUCATOR Basic Philosophy in Financing Public Seconda1:y Schodts 1. The Constitutional Proviso - "All educational institutions shall be under the supervision of and subject to regulation by the State. The Government shall establish and maintain_ a complete and adequate system of public education, and shall provide at least free public primary instruction, and citizenship training . to adult citizens. All schools shall aim to develop moral character, personal discipline, civic consci:ence; and vocational efficiency, and to teach the duties of citizenship. Optional religious instruction shall be maintained in the pubiic schools as now authorized by law." 2. In a democracy the quality and type of secondary education should be determined by the people themselves_ who should support the kind :of education they want. 3. Educational finance cannot be considered in an educatioonal vacuum. Sources of Finance for Our Secondary Schools 1. Tuition fees. In a study conducted by the Bureau of Public Schools, 1954-1955, the rate of tuition j'ees varied as follows out of random samplings from this study: City- of Manila ---------------····- P15-.15-20-20 Quezon ................................ P45 Tarlac .................................. P77-75-78-79 Capiz Pontevedra ........ : ........... Pll0-110-120-120 Cavite ................................ P75 Tanza .............................. P90 In 1950-1951 as reported in "A Foundation Program for Financing -Public Schools in the Philippines" by' Morrison, Guiang and Yanson, the total_ expenses for secondary schools was Pl0,586,000.00. Of this amount ?8,938,000.00 or 85/'a represent the tuition fees with an average of P75.85 per capita. 2. Transfer of funds from the General Fund of the province or the city to the school funds for the maintenance of secondary schools either to lessen the rate of tuition fees or to provide for other essential necessities. Only rich provinces and chartered cities give these transfers from General to School Funds. In the forQgoing study of the Bureau of Public Schools, a number of these provinces- gave their aid as follows: Abra Provincial H.S. -----------------------· P 900.00 Albay Prov. H.S. _______ ..................... . Kttlasi H.S., Antique -----------------------M._ H. del Pilar H.S., Bulacan JANUARY, 1958 19,667.00 4,500.00 22,040.00 Catanduanes H.S. .............................. 10,000.00 Ilocos N. Prov. H.S. .......................... 22,422.00 La Union Prov. H.S. __________ ___ __ _____ 33,075.64 3. Aids extended by P.T.A.'s and parents of the secondary school students. Recommended Other Sources 1. There should be created through congressional legislation or through resolutions of provincial boards or city councils of the chartered cities new taxes .earmarked specially for the support of secondary schools. (Prior to Commonwealth Act 386, there used to be marriage fees for the support of elementary schools.) 2. Pending the enactment of the Foundation Program into a law, there should be a legislation which would make it obligatory for the Provincial Board or City Council to transfer no less than 157a of the total provincial or city revenues exclusively for the support of public secon~ary schools. 3. -It might be possible to have National aid extended to the provincial or chartered city high schools particularly those provinces that are poor to carry on the burden of taxes. a. Principals of high schoo"ls in the National roll before. b. Supervisors of English and teachers of special subjects, like science and mathematics and health. 4. Donations or aids from P.T.A.'s, parents, etc. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Aldan.a, Benigno: The Philippine Public Schools: Their Administration· and Financing. 2. Morrison. Guiang and Yanson: A Foundation Program for Financing Public Schools in the Philip-pines, Bureau. of Printing, 1953. 3. Burke, A. J.: Financing Public Schools in the United States. Harpers and Bros., 1953. 4. Committee of the National Conference. of Professors of Educational Administration: Problems and Issues in Public School Finance, Bureau of Publication, Teachers College, Columbia, 1952. 5. · PASS: Education in Rural Areas for Better Living, 1950 Yearbook, Financing Public Elementary :Education Now and in 1950 by Pedro G. Guiang-. 6. Mort ..and Reusser: Public School Finance: McGrawHill Book Co., Inc., 1951. 7. Bureatr of Public Schools: Statement of Funds of General Secondary- Schools, Fiscal Year 1954-1955. 8. Ramirez, E. C., Strengthening the Finance of Pub-lic Secondary Sehools in the Philippines. PAGE 61

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