SORSOGON Governor Francis Escudero called on the Department of Education to immediately release funds to enable schools  to prepare for face-to-face classes.

He issued the appeal following reports that teachers were spending their own money and taking out loans to retrofit their classrooms for the progressive expansion of in-person learning.

“I don’t understand why teachers are getting into debt to fix their own classrooms when the DepEd has received a significant increase in its annual budget. Where is the P1 billion DepEd said will be distributed to public schools to support blended learning?” Escudero said in a statement on Friday.

“Para sa isang ahensiya na taon-taon ay pinakamalaki ang pondo, ayon sa Konstitusyon, nakakahiya naman yatang mga guro pa ang papagastusin natin sa pag-ayos ng mga classrooms nila,” he added.

This year, the Education department was given a budget of P631.77 billion, up by 6.34% from the agency’s P594.11 billion allocation in 2021.

Escudero said that the increase in DepEd’s budget allowed the agency to increase its Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses threshold from P15,000 to P50,000 for its field offices.

The department allotted P1 billion for public schools to acquire television, speakers, laptops and other equipment needed to support blended learning.