Advancing the cause of education

[Publisher/Editor’s/OpEd Editor’s note: The following is part of the statement released by the author about her acceptance of the offer from President-elect Rody Duterte to make her Secretary of Education. She is the lead convenor of Social Watch Philippines.]

1. All my life I have been exposed to the challenges of education in the Philippines. I come from a family of teachers. My parents, aunts and uncles, brother and sisters, nephews, nieces and even grandchildren are teachers. During the war years my mother taught me how to write, using banana leaves as paper and sharpened bamboo sticks as pencils.