Senate President Win Gatchalian is seeking a progress report on the implementation of the country’s historic 2026 education budget, which he described as the largest in Philippine history and the first to meet the United Nations’ recommended benchmark for education spending.

Gatchalian said he expects the upcoming State of the Nation Address (SONA) to provide a clear update on the government’s efforts to address the country’s education crisis.

The ₱1.35-trillion education budget, equivalent to 4.4% of the country’s GDP, includes ₱67.9 billion for the construction of at least 22,000 classrooms and ₱12.3 billion to address the funding deficiency in the free higher education program incurred from 2022 to 2025.

Gatchalian said the increased funding is a crucial step toward addressing the sector’s long-standing challenges, including the classroom backlog, which stood at around 147,000 as of July 2025.