Education receives the largest allocation in the 2026 national budget—a record-high Php1.35-trillion, equivalent to 4.4% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and meeting UNESCO’s recommended benchmark for the first time. The Marcos Jr administration is celebrating it as historic, claiming that finally we have a “true education budget” that reflects the government’s commitment to “nurture future-ready generations towards achieving the full potential of the nation.”
Yet this declaration rings hollow, not only because it comes on the heels of public outrage over a corruption-ridden budget process, but also because the Marcos Jr administration, like its predecessor, had consistently relegated education to second priority behind infrastructure spending, even as chronic learning shortages and globally worst learning outcomes persisted.
A deeper inquiry into the headline number completely erodes the narrative into a political stunt instead of a genuine commitment to resolve the education crisis. The 2026 education budget has been bloated with infrastructure spending and pork barrel—the Marcos Jr administration has been utterly unrepentant after all.
Unresponsive to the learning crisis
The Department of Education (DepEd), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), State Universities and Colleges (SUCs), and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) receive a combined Php1.2 trillion—more than the allocation for the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), the main agency implementing corruption-ridden infrastructure projects that benefit economic oligarchs and ruling elites.
The DepEd Office of the Secretary (OSEC) receives Php958.7 billion in 2026, 41% or Php224.5 billion higher than its average annual allocation of Php679.2 billion in 2022-2025. This is the first time that education has taken precedence over infrastructure under the Marcos government, on the back of a remarkable decrease in the budget of the DPWH OSEC from an average annual of Php947.4 billion in 2022-2025 to only Php529.6 billion in 2026. This short time series analysis alone diminishes the “true-ness” of the government’s feigned jubilation—the beleaguered Marcos presidency is regaining its political position by some performative education investment.
A closer look shows that the increased budget is not exactly addressing the learning crisis. The Support to Schools and Learners Program (SSLP), which accounts for 75% of the DepEd OSEC’s budget records an increase of Php116.1 billion. Under SSLP, there is a Php99 billion increase in the allocation for the operations of elementary, junior high, and senior high schools. While this appears to be direct funding, the increase does not make a dramatic difference considering the projected growth in enrolment.
It may be recalled that the department projected 27.6 million students in basic education in the school year 2025-2026 but saw a worrying drop to 24.9 million as the final figure—a phenomenon that the DepEd is yet to examine to this day. DepEd statistics is much delayed and not yet finalized for the school year 2026-2027, and still, the department is using the same enrolment figure of over 27 million. This means that the Marcos Jr government is investing only an additional Php769 per student, from Php12,206 in 2025 to Php12,975 in 2026. This also means that the system shall continue to be under strain, with a reported shortage of 165,443 classrooms and about 56,050 teachers.
Infra spending for private gain
Basic Education Facilities gets the largest increase, a 204% increase from Php28.1 billion in 2025 to Php85.4 billion in 2026. More than Php80.0 billion of this is Capital Outlay, prompting the Makabayan bloc to point out that the DepEd is one of the agencies where the DPWH ‘allocables’ have been transferred.[1]
Whereas before the DepEd identified the projects and the DPWH implemented construction, the DepEd may now enter into agreements with local government units (LGUs) and non-government organizations (NGOs). This does not change the system wherein school building construction may be the project of politicians.
The Marcos government also returns in the 2026 budget the previously unfunded Public School Infrastructure Program (PSIP) with a Php300 million allocation. PSIP is public-private partnership in building classrooms—another mechanism for bureaucrat capitalism or making use of public resources and position for private gain.
While there remains the aching need for more school buildings, facilities and classrooms, the president said in his veto message that his administration aims to build only 24,964 new classrooms with the 2026 budget, and a total of 40,000 new classrooms by the end of his term in 2028, leaving a massive shortfall against the 165,443-classroom backlog.
Of the Php85.4 billion for Basic Education Facilities, Php65.9 billion is allotted for the construction, replacement, and completion of school buildings. At the minimum amount of Php2 million per classroom, the government will need Php48 million for a four-storey school building with six classrooms per floor. At best, the current budget can only fund 1,373 buildings with 32,965 classrooms, still far from addressing both the shortage and the reality that 70% of existing classrooms nationwide need repair.
Will basic education facilities become DepEd’s version of the overpriced, substandard, and even ghost flood control projects? Hopefully not, because it is the safety and well-being of the teachers and pupils that would be put at risk. In any case, the real danger stems from school construction being privatized and treated as projects of politicians.
Ghost students and fake feeding programs
Under the SSLP, government assistance and subsidies get a minimal increase of only about Php600 million. The Joint Delivery Voucher for Senior High School Technical Vocational and Livelihood Specialization get Php2.2 billion; Educational Service Contracting (ESC) Program for Private Junior High School receives Php12.3 billion; Senior High School (SHS) Voucher Program is allotted Php26.4 billion; and Government Assistance and Subsidies for Training and Upgrading Knowledge for Learners Achievers in Schools (GAS-TUKLAS) gets Php100 million.
These subsidy programs have been prone to corruption and misuse. Beneficiary identification and reporting are largely handled by partner private schools, while funds are released directly to the schools, creating weak accountability and ample room for manipulation. The Commission on Audit (COA) has repeatedly flagged the SHS Voucher Program for cases of “ghost students” — beneficiaries who were not enrolled, had no attendance records, or were double-listed — resulting in overpayments and questionable claims.
COA reported over Php868,500 in overpayments linked to duplicate billing and unverified beneficiaries, as well as vouchers granted to students in elite, high-tuition private schools, raising concerns of inadequate targeting. The DepEd even withheld over Php200 million in SHS voucher subsidies for SY 2023-2024 due to questionable claims. The Marcos Jr government allocates a lower budget for the SHS Voucher Program for 2026, instead of overhauling the entire voucher system.
What remarkably increases under SSLP is the budget for the School-Based Feeding Program, from Php11.8 billion in 2025 to Php25.6 billion in 2026, which is extended from 120 days to 200 days and includes an additional obscure funding of Php1 billion for Capital Outlay. This program is implemented through memoranda of agreement with LGUs, including barangays, municipalities, and provinces. While the pupils indeed need nutrition support, devolved implementation and weak monitoring not only result in uneven efforts across stakeholders but also expose the program to political manipulation to secure loyalty at the barangay and municipal levels.
The feeding program has also been flagged by the COA for anomalies, such as spoiled, expired and overpriced food, not conducting the feeding program daily, and non-delivery of milk to several school division offices.
Budget for political patronage
Meanwhile, the 30% increase in CHED’s budget, from Php34.9 billion to Php48.4 billion, largely goes to education subsidies under the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education (UAQTE) program, which are given to poor students who are forced to enroll in private universities due to the lack of public higher education institutions.
The Marcos Jr administration is not fully funding Free Higher Education in 2026, as it allocates funds to pay arrears owed to 114 state universities and colleges for expenses they absorbed in school years 2022–2024. Instead of expanding Free Higher Education, the government prioritizes scholarships. Aside from the Php11.5 billion increase in UAQTE, there are remarkable increases in financial assistance for post-graduate students (Php688 million), Tulong Dunong program (Php670 million), and scholarships and grants through student financial assistance programs (Php637 million).
These function as ‘soft pork barrel’ spending for political patronage. For instance, CHED’s Php2-billion Tulong Dunong program provides tuition assistance to selected student beneficiaries. Although disbursement of cash grants has been recently centralized under CHED, eligibility still relies partly on barangay-issued certificates of indigency, leaving room for local political influence in beneficiary selection.
Likewise, the increase in TESDA’s budget from Php20.7 billion in 2025 to Php26.1 billion in 2026 prioritizes scholarships endorsed by politicians—an additional Php5.8 billion—as against Php15 million additional funding for free technical vocational education.
Cuts and cosmetic fixes
DepEd’s Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Program is another dubious reply to teaching and learning problems. The program provides specialized tutoring to struggling K-10 learners, particularly in reading, math and science. ARAL tutors may include teachers, para-teachers or pre-service teachers.
The Marcos Jr administration is planning to hire 448,000 ARAL tutors to teach 6.7 million students in school year 2026-2027, with full funding of Php8.9 billion. Of the amount, about Php3.1 billion is allocated for honoraria of both DepEd and non-DepEd tutors. However, it appears from DepEd’s Memorandum No. 1 issued on 8 January 2026 that priority of assignment will be given to DepEd teachers with less than six hours of teaching load who will only be paid under ARAL if their time exceeds six hours. The program is also not clear if there will be funds for learning evaluation and monitoring, teaching materials to be used, and capacity building for the tutors themselves.
It doesn’t change the reality that funding for critical education components is inadequate, if not scaled back. Funding for the Improvement and Acquisition of School Sites drops from Php134 million in 2025 to Php97 million in 2026. The budget for Learning Tools and Equipment is also decreased from Php3.5 billion to Php2.8 billion. These cuts undermine efforts to ease congestion, improve learning conditions, and address persistent shortages of basic teaching resources.
Ironically for an infrastructure-driven budgeting, the funding for the Last Mile Schools Program to address severe infrastructure and resource gaps in remote and underserved areas, including standard classroom construction, solar power installation, and teacher deployment, is reduced from Php3 billion in 2025 to zero in 2026.
Most hurting are the budget cuts for national development. SUCs receive a mere 7% increase from Php128 billion in 2025 to Php137 billion in 2026. Nineteen out of 115 SUCs in the country face significant funding cuts in 2026. Many of these institutions specialize in agriculture and science and technology – sectors that are critical to rural development and national industrialization.
Government’s learning failure
Overall, the 2026 education budget lays bare a continued de-prioritization of direct, long-term public investment, instead privileging short-sighted subsidy-driven programs and infrastructure business, which benefit politicians and private contractors.
Rather than prioritizing funds for developing resources, teachers, learning and teaching materials, and educational institutions, which would benefit teachers and students, the Marcos government refuses to take stock and only continues to pass on State responsibility to private providers. Then, it over-publicizes its magnanimity in directing huge amounts of funds towards financial assistance and projects that can be utilized for political patronage and as source of corruption.
Bigger funding will not address chronic shortages and translate into better learning outcomes. Numbers alone cannot reverse the country’s deep-seated learning crisis, especially since spending priorities continue to favor private interests and corrupt politicians over strengthening the public education system. More critically, public funds continue to flow into an education system and curriculum that is entrenched in neoliberalism and only creates labor to serve private and market-driven interests.
The education crisis is systemic and rooted in such neoliberal orientation—change cannot be simply reduced to a bigger budget. What is urgently needed are fundamental governance reforms starting with a budget system that is transparent, accountable and democratic, and extending to transformative education plan that reflects the nation’s development aspirations. This plan shall develop teachers and students as critical forces for national development that is reflected in government’s priorities and a nationalist, scientific and mass-oriented curriculum.
Without these concrete guarantees, the 2026 education budget will simply be remembered as just another headline figure built on hollow promises and coming along at a time when a presidency badly needed to regain its legitimacy.