FOR the country to address the shortage of classrooms, the government has to allot a bigger budget for the Department of Education, ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro said.

She suggested an allocation of at least 6 percent of the gross domestic product.

This year’s budget for the education sector only amounts to 3.6 percent of the GDP.

Castro said this is the essence of House Bill 1783 or the proposed Education as Priority in the National Appropriations Act.

The education department is looking for other sources of funds to address the classroom backlog of more than 165,000 as of 2022.

“While the initiative of donors both private and foreign are welcome, the Marcos-Duterte administration must not rely on these and make it their strategy to beg for donations for our children because it is one of the government’s primary duty to fund the education of Filipino children,” Castro said.

“Edukasyon dapat ang pangunahing pinaglalaanan ng pondo ng bayan, hindi Charter change, intelligence at confidential funds, NTF-ELCAC o mga foreign trips,” she added.