- DepEd launches Quality Basic Education Development Plan (QBEDP) 2025-2035, focusing on decentralization, digitalization, and public–private partnerships.
- Education Secretary Sonny Angara vows to safeguard DepEd funds after a ₱12-billion budget cut in 2025, ₱10 billion of which hit computerization.
- President Marcos Jr. backs education reform in his SONA, pledging investments in teacher support, curriculum renewal, and digital infrastructure.
With the official launch of the Quality Basic Education Development Plan (QBEDP) 2025-2035 an overall 10-year plan Education Secretary Sonny Angara emphasized how important stable financing is to achieving this grand vision. The QBEDP, launched on July 29, 2025, presents a national commitment to improve education through three fundamental reform drivers: decentralization, digitalization, and greater public–private partnerships.
But a disquieting budget slashing hangs over the road map. Last December, legislators cut almost ₱12 billion from DepEd's 2025 budget submission, and of this, ₱10 billion was cut from its computerization project the linchpin of its digital revolution drive. Angara deplored that such a slashing will jeopardize moves to modernize classrooms and arm both teachers and students with basic digital equipment. "So monitored ang budget this year so that it will not happen again last year", he explained to reporters, indicating his determination to avoid a repeat of this lapse.
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Success in education reform is now dependent on adequate financing. The QBEDP aims at broad improvements such as speeding up internet access, curriculum renewal, promotion of teachers, and increased Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) certification. Its reform pillars rely on five teachers, learners, governance, quality of learning, and employability each driven by decentralization, giving more powers and responsiveness to local school administrators.
At the same time, in his fourth State of the Nation Address last July 28, President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr. recognized the education sector's pressing issues learning poverty, infrastructure backlog, and low achievement and promised to grow investment in teacher assistance, curriculum reform, and digital infrastructure.
In reality, although the QBEDP charts a daring, decade-long overhaul of Philippine basic education, the success thereof now depends on whether its vision can be matched by the amount of money it needs and whether the pitfall of the recent ₱12 billion cut can be prevented in the future.
