BBB reset should be education-centric

THE mediocre state of Philippine education is our greatest humanitarian crisis. Yet, it does not get the draconian and urgent policy responses the sector deserves. Assessment after every awful assessment of the reading, comprehension and computing skills of our young have validated the slide of Philippine education from its decent to good rating in the middle of the last century to the epic fail and cellar-dwelling status that it is today. The World Bank's finding on the "learning poverty" of our young is an unequivocal indictment of education's epic fail. The global ranking of universities has routinely documented the slide of our once-prestigious universities to so-so status. (Remember the time that the University of the Philippines was on the Top 25 list of great Asian universities?) It is only now that the "why" behind the anemic responses have seen the light of day.

The simple explanation? Our educational mediocrity serves the forever purposes of the economic and political elite. The political component of that is explained by the current campaign for the presidency ahead of the May 2022 elections.