Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE)

The Department of Education continues to upgrade its services to enhance teaching standards and learning outcomes. One of the reforms is the transference of responsibilities on school to manage their operation and resources for school development so as to develop an environment that facilitates continuous improvement.

Connectedly, Department of Education Order 13, s. 2016 otherwise known as ―Implementing Guidelines on the Direct Release and Use of Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) Allocations of Schools, including Other Funds Managed by Schools‖ was issued to deepen the decentralization of education management.

Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses is the school budget downloaded from the government to all public schools for the utilization in running school operations. The budget includes the procurement of school supplies necessary in classroom teaching, utilities and communication, training activities, graduation rites, security, janitorial services, minor school repair as stated in the approved School Improvement Plan (SIP) for the current school year and in the Annual Improvement Plan (AIP) of the school, procure small capital expenditure items worth Php 15,000 and below as provided in the new Government Accounting Manual issued by the Commission on Audit and subject to separate guidelines to be issued by DepEd . Moreover, MOOE funds are allocated on the basis of student enrollment and other characteristics, for example, number of classrooms and teachers. In line with an elevated focus on decentralization, MOOE funds nearly tripled from PHP 4 Billion in 2005 to PHP 12 Billion in 2013 [69]. A detailed costing study has revealed that MOOE funding remains insufficient despite increases and would need to more than double to satisfy existing services standards [2]. In addition, funding is vaguely aligned with need and there remain vast differences in spending between regions.