How each presidential bet plans to improve RP’s human capital

CANDIDATES ON EDUCATION AND THE NATIONAL FUTURE

Public investments in our human capital are East Asia’s most meager. The Jesuit Bienvenido Nebres calls the government’s neglect of adequate basic, elementary education for the great majority of our people “our immense and yet largely invisible failure.”

This failure has a lot to do with our dismal development, poverty, joblessness and lack of civic pride and sense of civic duty.

With the above description of the issue, we asked the presidential candidates the following questions.

Questions:

As president, how will you address this issue? What kind of country will you strive to build as president and leave to our people when your term as president ends?

[We limited each candidate to 500 words. Unfortunately, some exceeded the limit.]

Aquino, Benigno 3rd “Noynoy”
Liberal Party

To me, it is simple. Education means empowerment. We must empower our children to strive for a better future—empowered to graduate from school, empowered to get jobs, empowered to participate in governance. The facts are well known to all. We may have high Grade 1 enrolment rates on the first day of schooling; the sad fact is, we do not do a good job of keeping our kids in school through graduation. I am told that for every 100 children that enter Grade 1, only 14 will eventually graduate from college.

Of those that graduate from elementary, only 90 percent will move on to high school with less than half of the original group entering Grade 1 graduating from Fourth Year HS (High School) (46 percent).

That is the group that is eligible or qualified to go on to university. Yet many within that cohort cannot pass university entrance examinations because of poor language communication, low math and science aptitude, and poor analytical skills.

This is the sad reality of our basic education. What we need to get out of this mess is not only focus on the shortages in classrooms, teachers, textbooks, furniture and supplies; but more importantly we need to focus on the qualitative aspect of our reform. Let me lay out the ten most critical things I will focus on to fix the problem of basic education:

1. 12-year Basic Education Cycle

I will expand the basic education cycle in this country from a short 10-year cycle to a globally comparable 12 years before the end of the next administration (2016).

In this country, those who can afford it pay for up to fourteen years of schooling for their children before university. Thus, their children are getting into the best universities and the best jobs after graduation. I want at least 12 years for our public school children to give them an even chance at succeeding.

2. Universal Pre-schooling for all

All public school children (and all public schools) will have preschooling as their introduction to formal schooling by 2016.

All over the world, young children attend pre-school as their first year of schooling with the research showing that children with pre-school do better with reference to key education indicators including lower dropout rates, higher retention and completion, and better learning abilities.

3. Madaris Education as a sub-system within the education system

I want a full basic education for ALL Muslim Filipino children anywhere in the country.

Our Muslim brothers and sisters ask for an education system that respects their culture while providing a technically sound curriculum in English, Filipino, Science and Math.

Madaris education with subjects in Arabic Language and Islamic Values Education can be integrated in our public school curriculum as additional subjects with the view to keeping our Muslim Filipino children in school.

4. Technical vocational education as an alternative stream in senior high school

I will re-introduce technical-vocational education in our public high schools to better link schooling to local industry needs and employment.

Half of our high school graduates want to work upon graduation but do not have enough technical education. We need to provide an education alternative to better prepare students for the world of work.

In 1992, when basic education was split into basic, technical vocational and tertiary education, we took out technical vocational education from our high schools and left a principally university-preparatory curriculum.

This does not help our high school students who have little interest or time for university. Worse, by offering a strictly academic college-preparatory curriculum, we are actually encouraging them to drop out of high school because of the irrelevance of the curriculum to their own goals.

Technical, vocational education must be re-introduced in our public high schools with trade tests and skills rating (Tesda [Technical Education and Skills Development Authority] or other acceptable work standards) as the final examination for students looking at HS as their terminal course.

5. “Every Child a Reader” by Grade 1

By the end of the next administration, every child must be a reader by Grade 1.

At the core of our children’s non-learning problems is the inability to read properly. Research shows that poor performance in tests is also about the inability to read and comprehend the tests.

By the end of the next administration (SY 2015-16), every child passing pre-school must be a reader by Grade 1.

Essential to this, we must build a library infrastructure in our schools, procure reading books, and train our elementary teachers on how to teach reading.

6. Science and Math proficiency

I will rebuild the science and math infrastructure in schools so that we can produce more scientists, engineers, technicians, technologists and teachers in our universities so that this country can be more globally competitive in industry and manufacturing.

We need a strong science and math curriculum that starts as early as Grade 1 with instructional materials and properly trained elementary teachers. To build a culture for science and math, I will bring back the science and math clubs movement with elementary and high school Science/Math fairs.

7. Assistance to private schools as essential partners in basic education

I will expand government assistance to private education. A strong private school system will strengthen our public schools by providing parents an alternative and not adding to the overcrowding.

Private education must be a partner in producing quality education in the country.

8. Medium of instruction rationalized

My view on this is larger than just the classroom. We should become tri-lingual as a country:

Learn English well and connect to the World.

Learn Filipino well and connect to our country.

Retain your mother of tongue & connect to your heritage.

Unesco has proven that young children learn best in their mother tongue before moving on to English in
higher grades.

From pre-school to Grade 3, we will use the mother tongue as the medium of instruction while teaching English and Filipino as subjects.

From Grades 4-6 (7), we will increasingly use English as the medium of instruction for Science and Math and Filipino for Araling Panlipunan (Social Studies). For High School, English should be the medium of instruction for Science, Math and English; Filipino for AP, Filipino and tech-voc education.

9. Quality textbooks

I will not tolerate poor textbook quality in our schools. Textbooks will be judged by three criteria: quality, better quality, and more quality.
Poor quality textbooks have no place in our schools.

10. Covenant with local governments to build more schools

I will build more schools in areas where there are no public or private schools in a covenant with LGUs (local governments ) so that we can realize genuine education for all.

We have a continuing classroom shortage, but we do not need more overcrowded schools. Quadruple shifting and subject integration, which has become the norm in some of our public schools, has reduced learning time to inadequate hours.

We need more schools with smaller populations so that teachers, students, and parents can form a real learning community. If we have to build more classrooms, let us configure these as new less-populated schools.

If we fix these ten concerns, we will fix most of the problems in our education system.
If we fix basic education, we fix the long-term problems of the country.

And if we fix the country’s problems, we will build a truly strong society we can proudly call the Philippines.

De los Reyes, John Carlos “JC”
Ang Kapatiran

This is the statement on “Education and the National Future” from JC de los Reyes and Ang Kapa-tiran Party. The Education Agenda is part of the National Productivity and the Human Resource Deve-lopment Initiatives of Ang Kapatiran Party that seeks to uphold human dignity.

These twin initiatives are imbedded in our strategic grassroots/barangay transformational programs that are pro-poor, pro-family, and pro-life:

I. Establishment of 150 new growth centers.

This aims to develop opportunities for livelihood, education, reversal of flow of OFW’s (overseas Filipino workers) to reunite families, decongestion of highly urbanized cities, and creation of an infrastructure network for sustained quality of life for all citizens

II. Utilization of government-owned lands. This aims to establish 150 new centers for food production with contingent irrigation.

III.    Re-tooling of Education to instill the right values at a young age (love of God, country and fellow citizens) and to gear higher education towards producing entrepreneurs, small/medium business persons, and technocrats for the country rather than the export market.

IV.    Institutionalization of “Young Citizens for Nation Building” via mandatory summer community services for all graduating high school and college students such as in political education of the masses, in environment programs in rural and urban areas, in apprenticeship, etc.

Education Agenda

1. Main Thrust – Build a Nation of Character. Authentic education is the formation of mind and heart. In the context of politics understood in its wider sense as that body of moral principles that regulate social relations in civil society, a good national character is the key to good politics. That national character can only emerge out of a system of education that nurtures the young in truth and authentic human values.

2.    Teachers’ Welfare. Quality education is grounded on quality teaching. There should be more safety nets for an equitable, timely, and prompt availability of teachers’ compensation and welfare packages. It bears emphasis that this is an imperative of basic justice.

3.    The Basic Education Cycle. Government should revisit its 10-year basic education system in light of the challenges presented by the prevailing international norms and standards based on a Kindergarten-13 (K-13) basic education system. Modern Psychology has confirmed the most fertile ground for education and formation in the Kindergarten years of the child.

4.    English Proficiency/Strengthening Sciences, Mathematics, Engineering. Without hampering the continued development and enrichment of the national language, English should be favored as a medium of instruction. While English proficiency is key to the Filipino’s competitiveness in the global community, Sciences, Mathematics, and Engineering are important variables in the worth of the Filipino both domestically and as a world-renowned human resource.

5.    Textbooks, Learning Tools, Communication Technologies. The State should earnestly banish
error-laden textbooks and encourage with incentives good writers to produce good books and creative teaching tools that are in tune with global developments. Appropriate tax incentives will enable public and private educational institutions to use emerging communication technologies for the classroom.

6.    Classroom Shortage. The share of education in the national budget should be strictly enforced, with the provision for classrooms as a priority. New construction technologies can be tapped for massive building of classrooms and school buildings.

5. Corruption in DepEd. It is a disgrace that corruption lurks in the very institution that is supposed to teach and live by example. The full strength of the law should be used without fear or favor if only to make it seen by the young people we seek to nurture what it means to obey the rule of law.

Overall, the five-point program of AKP on eradicating corruption is most necessary. The five points are (1) ending and prohibiting political dynasties as enshrined in the Constitution, (2) abolishing the pork barrel system, (3) adhering to the Constitutional mandate of passing the law on full disclosure of all government transactions, (4) abolishing the discretionary authorities of the BIR [Bureau of Internal Revenue] and Customs, and (5) institutionalizing the speedy administration of justice.

Estrada, Joseph “Erap”
Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino

President Joseph Es-trada has always been committed to providing affordable quality education for the poor. As mayor, he established the San Juan elementary school and high school.

As president from 1998 to 2001, he gave the highest real per capita for basic education as compared to all presidents under the present Constitution. He founded the Erap Para Sa Mahirap Scholarship Foundation, which has graduated 16,000 scholars, and the Erap Muslim Youth Foundation, which has allowed poor but deserving Muslim students go to colleges or universities of their own choice anywhere in the world. He has also donated all his salaries from the time that he was mayor to scholarship foundations. As president this 2010, he will:

The Constitution mandates that Article XIV Sec. 5 (5) that the “State shall assign the highest budgetary priority to education.” However, of all presidents under the present Constitution, only the Estrada Administration followed this mandate. An Estrada-Binay Administration will strictly follow this Constitutional mandate in order to give our better access to better quality education.

Research shows that early experiences shape whether or not a child’s brain develops strong skills for future learning, behavior and success. Investing in early childhood education during the infant and toddler years is particularly critical. An Estrada-Binay Administration will invest in early childhood education by mandating and supporting day care centers into incorporating kindergarten and pre-school education in their programs.

President Joseph Estrada, as the millennium president of the Philippines, signed the Millennium Development Goals initiated by the United Nations. One of the goals that the Estrada Administration committed to for the country is the achievement of universal primary education by the year 2015. This means all children will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling or basic elementary education by 2015. This will be achieved by increasing the budget for basic education, as he had done as president, and fulfilling the mandate of the Constitution to prioritize education in the national budget.

Indigent parents will also be given incentives to send their children to school at least from Grades 1 to 4 through a conditional cash transfer program. To make it less difficult for children to go to school, an Estrada-Binay Administration will also ensure that each municipality has an elementary school so that children will not have to walk more than 5 kilometers just to attend class.

An Estrada Administration will assist out-of-school youth by providing skills training for jobs that do not require a diploma. This is also intended to curb the unemployment rate because 45% of the country’s unemployed are part of the youth who have received no more than a high school education.

An Estrada Administration will streamline the onerous financial aid application process that discourages students from getting aid for college. An Estrada-Binay Administration will increase the number of government scholarships.

An Estrada Administration will give teachers incentives to stay in the Philippines instead of moving abroad for better paying jobs by (1) increasing teachers’ salaries and (2) increasing teachers’ benefits.

Gordon, Richard “Dick”
Bagumbayan Party

First for the common good—that is what we Filipinos must instill in our minds if we want to succeed as a nation. Sadly, our people have developed a mindset that “So long as it doesn’t directly affect me, I don’t care much.”

In the same way, our leaders do not seem to have that sense of the common good, because a lot of them only think of accumulating wealth for themselves rather than creating wealth for our people.

The task of a leader is to uplift the level of behavior, standard of values, principles of every Filipino. And so, choosing our leaders is always a crucial step toward our nation’s progress. However, our people will not be able to discern well if they are uneducated.

Time and again, our leaders, especially during elections, have promised us that they will improve the country’s education system. But every time they uttered those promises, we fail to ask them how they would do that.

Education and health would be the utmost priorities under a Gordon administration, as it should be in every government. This is not a promise, but a commitment to ensure that every Filipino child would grow up well educated and healthy.

My immediate plan is to significantly improve our country’s education and healthcare systems by raising the salary of public school teachers to P40,000 a month, so that the best and the brightest graduates would be the mentors of our children. I will also provide electronic book readers to our students so that they would have access to quality books and it would serve as a confidence-booster, reminding them that the government cares for them. Meanwhile, I would also increase the salary of public doctors, dentists, nurses and other public health care workers so that we will have doctors and health workers in our schools and in rural areas. Furthermore, it would be required for high school students to learn a skill so that, if necessary, they will already have means to support their education and land a job after they graduate. Education is the first step—it would be the light that would guide our nation out of the dark tunnel.

These things, however, would only work with the help of the people. Every Filipino must be part of the process of change. Kapag nagsama ang lider at ang tao, lalabas ang galing ng Pilipino! That is what I want for our country—all hands carrying the load. We must emerge as a nation that is proud because we will have the cleanest, most honest and most effective government our country ever saw. And above all, we will take pride in the fact that Filipinos are caring, compassionate, competitive, competent, united, liberal, transformational, secure, safe and successful.

Perlas, Nicanor “Nick”
Partido Kalikasan

(This is culled from Mr. Nicanor Perlas’ official website.)

Part of Mr. Perlas’ platform on improving Education in our country is to “identify the top 100 secondary educational institutions of the country” and then to “provide support for their innovative practices.”

The creative practices of these educational institutions will then be documented and then disseminated to other institutions for them to adopt. A Perlas Administration will also then hold partnerships with these academic institutions “as hubs of educational excellence.”

A Perlas Administration will implement “an in-depth study, involving all stakeholders, as basis for the gradual transfer educational services to the cultural non-profit sector of society especially in partnership with the community.”

Perlas’ platform on Education also plans to shift the focus of education from the quantity of educational services to something more qualitative, implementing their programs for “holistic education.” Perlas plans to adopt “more holistic educational approaches that develop multi-talented, creative, critical-thinking, socially-oriented students and citizens.”

Some aspects of this “holistic education” idea include multiple-intelligence education, environmental education, and life-long learning.

Specific educational action plans include:

• Upgrade the scientific and technological education and training standards of the country to ensure that the necessary human capacities will be there to support the macro and micro-economic policies and programs envisioned in the section on Eradication of Poverty and Enhanced Quality of Life.
• Encourage the pursuit of higher education in holistic science, appropriate technology and environmentally sound engineering subjects to provide the human capital necessary to mainstream the green technologies and businesses envisioned in the Party’s anti-poverty and quality of life platform.
• Restore primary and secondary education back to 12 years.

As for the Health Care concern, a Perlas Administration wishes to establish a nationwide health insurance system. He will also “task the Department of Health to install a nationwide system of holistic and preventive approaches to medicine,” as stated in his official site.

Furthermore, Perlas plans to “conduct a massive skills-oriented awareness campaign on sanitation, nutrition, and environmental health to lay the foundations of preventive approaches to health.”

Teodoro, Gilbert Jr. “Gibo”
Lakas-Kampi CMD

Public investments in our human capital are East Asia’s most meager. The Jesuit Bienvenido F. Nebres calls the government’s neglect of adequate basic, elementary education for the great majority of our people “our immense and yet largely invisible failure.” This failure has a lot to do with our dismal development, poverty, joblessness and lack of civic pride and sense of civic duty.

Questions:

As president, how will you address this issue? What kind of country will you strive to build as president and leave to our people when your term as president ends?

Mr. Teodoro’s reply:

We need to reinvent Government, transform it from a set of outmoded institutions that inhibit our potentials into an effective mechanism that will build social wealth, protect the most vulnerable, and enable all Filipinos to seize opportunities to improve their lives.

Government must lead rather than merely administer; help our communities build up human and physical assets rather than consume resources. Our people’s trust in political leadership must be restored and their faith in the possibility of liberating government reinforced.

In the short term, Government must make the required strategic investments closing the infrastructure gap and in quickly raising the quality of our basic education and health care systems. The first will enhance the domestic and international commerce, while the second will greatly improve our human capital, the driving force of our economic growth.

A Teodoro administration will focus on the following to further develop our human capital and make the Philippines a magnet for investments and job creation:

1) Adopt a Universal Participatory Healthcare System, which will provide health care coverage for 100 percent of the population;
2) Reform Basic Education by enhancing teacher education, closing the classroom gap, reducing the teacher-to-pupil ratio in public schools and raising learning outcomes;
3) Align our curriculum design with those of the rest of the world and adopting competency-based standards in hiring teachers;
4) Lay down the foundation that would enable each family to have at least one college graduate by, among others, a Student Loan Program to provide poor but deserving high school graduates the opportunity to receive college education. Scholarships will also be offered in unpopular yet important courses such as international relations, public policy and planning and highly specialized science courses;
5) Carry out an Infrastructure Roadmap to enhance the country’s public infrastructure system by requiring the integration and convergence of various transport networks, such as airports, railways, ports and shipping.

To attract more investments, public-private partnerships through initiatives like the Build-Operate-and-Transfer (BOT) program will be promoted, and local government units will be encouraged to access Official Development Assistance (ODA) funds in infrastructure buildup to hasten regional integration, especially in critical growth areas and lagging provinces;

6) Advance a sustainable Peace Agenda to instill a culture of peace among our people. We will ensure peace and order, which is a pre-requisite to economic and socio-cultural development;

7) Implement an Environment Agenda to fight climate change. We can do this through a massive reforestation program by setting aside at the least P5 billion each year for “forest dwelling communities” that will provide regular income support for families in forestry cooperatives.

The government shall demarcate the forest lines with visible boundaries on the ground and use assisted natural regeneration (ANR) methods to re-vegetate our forests.

We will also implement training and information drives in the area of solid waste management, especially in waste segregation and composting, with the participation of local communities.

Villanueva, Eduardo “Bro. Eddie”
Bangon Pilipinas

Our people is our strength; our invaluable wealth.

The Philippines’ 90 million population is for me, more of an opportunity rather than a liability. Simply because we are talking about people and the enormous opportunities that each of the 90 million persons could contribute in nation-building.

Mahalaga ang bawat isang Pilipino! Kaya mahalaga ang kanilang paglago sa lahat ng aspeto ng buhay.

But with the still increasing gap between the rich and the poor—with latest data showing the total income of 1 percent of the population which is equivalent to 150,000 richest families in the country equalling the total income of 38 percent of the population or 6 million families—majority of the Filipinos become disgruntled.

And many of them do not see this gap being bridged soon with unemployment rate at 7.1 percent and underemployment is at 19.4 percent.

I see empowerment of our people in the form of education. I also see education as a mandate of righteousness. And I am pleased to say that the Bangon Pilipinas’ Platform is strongest on the education agenda.

The keystone of our education program is to turn our people into Filipinos thoroughly conscious of their history, culture, and destiny as a nation so that they can push the country into an era of productivity not only in agriculture and agroforestry but in entrepreneurship, science and technology.

Our specific programs to do these include:

• increasing the budget of education to make it equivalent to 6 percent of our Gross Domestic Product, as prescribed by the Millennium Development Goals.
• restoring and implementing in public schools and state colleges and universities the mastery of both English and the national language, and thorough knowledge of Philippine pre-history, history, geography and culture
• establishing Community Entrepreneurial High Schools that will build the concept and practice of entrepreneurship into all subjects, and turn high school students as well as their parents and communities into teams of entrepreneurs capable of growing micro to small and small to medium-scale enterprises with the cooperation of teachers and barangay/town officials
• ensuring that the mandate and practice of Science High Schools produce scientists and mathematicians who are capable of inventing new knowledge, products and processes
• ensuring that technological colleges and universities produce graduates who are not only competent but world-class in software programming, internet and communications technology, and networking
• granting incentives to private and state colleges and universities to conduct Research & Development towards the production of new knowledge, products and processes especially with regard to the green and sustainable modernization of indigenous agriculture and the green and sustainable production of food, clothing and shelter
• bolstering current polytechnic learning institutions with an R&D orientation designed to build the best possible products out of Philippine human and natural resources
• ensuring the preservation, consolidation and popularization of our national identity, history and culture
• working towards free college or tertiary-level education of poor but determined and industrious students nationwide

I myself am a political economist and educator. I will always wear as a badge of honor the humbling experience of being recorded as the longest serving Regent of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, the biggest people’s university in the country.

If I would choose what legacy I would like to leave behind as president, it is to have made education as a shining pillar of nation-building.

Villar, Manuel Jr. “Manny”
Nacionalista Party

The Villar for President platform gives “high priority to education, health, housing and other basic social services” and declares that “the initial economic growth [achieved by the Villar presidency] will be used to pour government investments in education and health services.”

To Manny Villar people are the country’s foremost assets. The Filipino people must be given proper basic education and vocational skills and those with the aptitude and the capabilities must be aided to obtain tertiary education.

The primary goals, however, are economic since without the economic means the various necessary steps to achieve real reforms in basic education cannot be achieved and the education system will continue to be the defective, shortage-ridden one that we have now.

Ang Bayan higit sa lahat!

(The nation above everything else)

The Philippines is basically an underdeveloped agricultural country. Majority of its people still live in the rural areas and support themselves through agriculture and fisheries. The nation’s main problem is widespread poverty and social 2injustice.

The main thrust of our platform is emancipating the people from poverty and injustice. Self reliant and sustainable economic development program shall be pursued by implementing agrarian reform, increasing agricultural productivity and developing domestic industries. The problems of environmental destruction, climate change and recurring calamities shall be comprehensively addressed. High priority shall be given to education, health, housing and other basic social services.

Economic development should be coupled with reforms ensuring social equity and respect for human rights. People empowerment and good governance are vital to implementing meaningful reforms in the economy, politics, culture and foreign relations.

A foreign policy based on respect for national sovereignty and ensuring mutual benefit shall be charted.
The policy of economic liberalization and blind adherence to “globalization” must be reviewed. Unequal
economic, military and other foreign treaties and agreements must be corrected.

The development of our agricultural lands and providing livelihood opportunities shall raise the standard of living in the rural areas and increase manpower productivity. Food production should be geared towards food self-sufficiency. Emphasis should be given to staple crops such rice and corn.

We shall review the policy on trade liberalization in agriculture and provide support and safety nets in order to protect local producers and at the same time giving them access to global market. We will provide support to farmers in the form of appropriate agricultural inputs and post harvest facilities. We should open market opportunities for local products by providing for new roads and bridges to access and facilitate mobility.

We need to develop rural industries by providing forward and backward linkages, access to technology, and micro finance. We shall facilitate the development of agri-business and entrepreneurship. A Villar administration primarily targets economic growth that is both sustainable and felt by the poor. But economic policies are only part of the initial development.

For the economic growth that a Villar administration will deliver to be sustainable, there will need to be increased investments in our human capital to create a society that offers equal access to opportunities.

Villar and the Nacionalista Party’s (NP) programs will be focused on the most marginalized sectors since they are the biggest source of manpower.

The initial economic growth will be used to pour government investments in education and health services.

A Villar administration will ensure all Filipinos will enjoy universal and free primary education; free secondary education and greater access to tertiary education.

These added investments in education will include the building of more classrooms; improvement in the quality of education; promotion of professional growth in academe; and balance the disparity between job training and actual job offerings.

Improvements in Education and Health Care under a Villar administration will help allow lower middle-class and middle-class Filipinos become greater contributors to sustained economic development. –Manila Times