The Department of Education’s (DepEd) School Electrification Program will receive an additional PHP500 million, which will help provide electricity to schools that are not connected to the grid and will upgrade the electrical systems in schools that are.
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian announced that the Senate Committee on Finance has approved his proposal to raise the funding for the program from PHP 1.295 billion. This change is included in the Senate’s committee report for the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) for Fiscal Year 2025 (House Bill 10800).
“Before we can push for the wider use of technology in our schools, it is important the we make sure that all our schools have electricity. This is in line with our efforts to provide our schools with quality facilities for their studies,” shared Gatchalian.
Even until now, the Philippines struggles in completing the electrification of schools. According to DepEd data used in a 2024 research paper by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, there are still 1,562 schools having no electricity connection as of 2020. The study also revealed that a total of 39,335 schools are in need of an electrical upgrade as of the same year.
Electricity is key to improving the learning environment. A study by the University of the Philippines Center for Integrative and Development Studies found that elementary schools with electricity performed 12% better on the National Achievement Test (NAT) compared to those without. Secondary schools with electricity also scored 10% higher than those without power.
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