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OUR basic education system run by the Department of
Education (DepEd) caters to over 20 million learners, housed in over
45,000 schools and community centers and supported by over 513,000
teachers and staff. This opening line is mind-boggling, to say the
least. The student number alone is more than the national
populations of about 100 other countries.
The good news starts with the
master plan—the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan that calls
for “Education for All (EFA)” as core strategy. Under the EFA,
nine urgent tasks for quality education are to be in place. This
includes training of teachers focusing on English, math and
sciences. The person with the stick of chalk or marker remains the
key figure in sharing knowledge and drawing out the talents of
children. “It begins and ends with the teacher,” we say.
Governance issue is another
pillar. There ought to be a system to disseminate crucial
information to offices from the heartland of Makati to the
hinterland of Tagum. At the same time, data need to be gathered and
analyzed for better policies to be set and to prioritize use of
scarce resources. We lack the hard and timely statistics to make
important decisions.
How neglected education is can
easily seen by comparing the United Nations recommendation for
developing countries to allocate the equivalent of six percent of
GDP for education while the World Bank notes that it should be at
least 20% of our budget. Right now, the funds for education are only
2.53% of GDP and 12% in the General Appropriations Act. To think
that roughly 30% of this goes to debt servicing. If we tack in the
pork barrel and intelligence funds, surely a significant increase
can be made for the case of education. For the compassion and
well-meaning intentions of multilateral agencies and lending
countries, the single most important factor is to help solve our
debt problem and to free up more money for students to learn.
Decentralization is a solution
with school-based management (SBM). The idea is to empower the
principals and local stakeholders to administer the schools given
peculiar conditions in the community. There are about 42,000 public
schools—more than all government agencies combined and multiplied
several times over.
A recent policy change is to
utilize daycare centers for preschool education to prepare 5-year
olds for formal instruction. Studies show that starting them early
is the best foundation for families to embrace schooling. I, though,
do not subscribe to the idea of sending two, three and four year
olds to get them ahead. There is a season for everything, as the
good book says.
These reforms are captured in the
Basic Education Sector Reform Agenda. Formulated by past secretaries
of Education, it is fully implemented by Secretary Jesli Lapus, a
management guy and finance expert.
Textbook prices have fallen from
P70-120 in 1998 to P31 today even with inflation and the rising
costs of paper and printing. Imagine the savings from the changes in
universal procurement —more books that are error-free because
content is reviewed by leading universities like Ateneo, UP and La
Salle depending on expertise and a bidding process that is touted by
the World Bank as a best practice in Southeast Asia and even Europe.
Last school year, 14,655 new
classrooms were built, more than twice the target of 6,000 without
delay and within specifications made possible by principal-led
school building projects. Class size is nearer to 45 from the
previous 50. The Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce
and Industry, Inc. remains at the forefront with their lowest and
graft-free cost. If only business practices of the oligarchs can
follow this lead.
The funny thing is that good news
do not travel fast and far if at all. Our national media are feeding
crazy over scandals and entertainment. Maybe they are the same? We
scan the news and watch TV and find no solace to our daily troubles
but only slants that add to our angst and sense of deterioration.
Things are a-happening in basic education. We only need to get them
out. Dedicated public servants like Undersecretary Mon Bacani and
competent career officials abound. We only need to keep them in.
mlatimes@gmail.com.
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