‘More Libraries Needed Amid Deteriorating State Of Education’

The government must end the moratorium on building school libraries to counter the deteriorating state of education in public schools, a member of the House of Representatives said over the weekend.

Deputy Speaker Ralph Recto said it is imperative for the government to end its 16-year moratorium on building libraries in public schools nationwide in light of the report that the Philippines ranked last in reading comprehension among 79 nations in 2018.

“We should end the moratorium in building new libraries. A school without one is like a swimming pool without water,” Recto said, citing the deteriorating state of basic education in the country.

He pointed out that “library construction has taken a long vacation from the national budget as a distinct program with specific funding,” since the last allocation was in 2006 worth P120 million for the establishment of 60 library hubs and 12 big learning resource centers.

“The program was still highlighted in the 2014 budget of DepEd but was no longer in the years that followed,” the Batangas congressman recalled. The “remedial measure” he proposed is to in-crease the Department of Education (DepEd) budget for 2023.

“Let’s set aside funds for libraries in the 2023 budget. It’s time to turn the page and reverse the neglect of this vital school facility,” Recto said, adding that this can be done by increasing DepEd’s new buildings fund of P5.91 billion enough for 2,379 new classrooms.

The Philippines had the lowest test scores in reading comprehension among 79 countries that participated in the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

“Let’s make sure that our young people will fall in love with books. And building book depots and reading centers could be the start of their beautiful relationship with reading. If we want our kids to read, read, read, we should build, build, build libraries,” Recto said.

As this developed, Rep. Zaldy Co, who chairs the House committee on appropriations, has joined other House leaders in particularly calling on Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Ivan John Uy to work for the lowering of the cost of internet access in the country and bringing it to faster speeds.

“The pandemic has shown us that the internet has become a vital element in our lives – from food orders and medical consultations to online classes and businesses to entertainment,” said Co of the Ako Bicol party-list. “Almost all aspects of our lives now have online platforms.”

As of January 2021, an estimated 74 million Filipinos are digitally connected.

“The huge number of Filipinos online should inspire our DICT and internet service providers (ISPs) to improve the service and Internet speed that our (fellow Filipinos) receive,” Co said at the hearing of DICT’s proposed 2023 budget of P7.32 billion last week.