THE SECOND Congressional Commission on Education or EDCOM 2 on Thursday divulged the Special Education Fund of local government units around the country remain underutilized, despite an increase in income.

The EDCOM’s findings were tackled during the technical working group meeting on the 21st Century School Boards Act and Expanding Special Education Fund by the Senate Committee on Local Government held jointly with Committees on Basic Education and Finance.

“We need to ensure that the SEF can be fully utilized especially because LGUs need additional support for education. Since procurement issues and limitations on the use of the SEF have been among the reasons for its underutilization, it is crucial that we give LGUs the flexibility to use their available resources for their education needs,” said Gatchalian.

Aside from expanding the use of the SEF, Gatchalian’s proposed measure seeks to strengthen LGU involvement in improving the quality of education.

In its Year One Report entitled Miseducation: The Failed System of Philippine Education, one of the findings identified by the Commission is there a marked disparity in SEF income among different types of local government units.

The Commission noted the median SEF income of municipalities is only 4 percent of that cities and provinces.

Meanwhile, first class municipalities have SEF incomes 68 times more than their sixth class counterparts.

Based on analysis by EDCOM, between 2018 and 2022, SEF underutilization amounted to P15 billion in 2022 wherein underutilization is highest in cities.

“Despite this, and the presence of two policies on reporting of SEF expenditures, who is accountable in reporting these figures, and in working with LGUs to ensure that they are spent?,” the commission said.