Sweeping reforms

Angara, chairman of the Senate Education, Arts, and Culture Committee, Friday urged sweeping reforms that would lift the country’s educational system after noting that the country is producing 2.13-million college dropouts annually.

In last Thursday’s hearing by the Angara committee on complaints against inordinately high miscellaneous fees collected by private colleges and universities, college students cited Commission on Higher Education (CHED) data showing that enrollees in higher education institutions (HEIs) from 2001 to the present have reached 2.56 million.

The same data showed the dropout rate at an alarming 83.7 percent, meaning the country is producing 2.13-million college dropouts annually.

In a recent Education Forum, Angara also noted that the achievement and survival rates among Filipino elementary and high school students are also falling at an alarming rate.

Angara, a former University of the Philippines (UP) president, called for reforms in the curriculum and other education standards; expertise and qualifications of teachers and school administrators; reward and compensation system for the teaching workforce; and quality data generation to guide educational planning and policymaking to improve students.

Department of Education (DepED) Secretary Armin Luistro also pointed out that “the root cause of our failures in education is the program and curriculum.”

Angara said the Philippine government must, in the next education generation or next 14 years, be able to reverse the current situation of 80 percent of college students enrolled in private schools and 20 percent in state colleges
and universities (SUCs) to 20 percent, private colleges, and 80 percent SUCs.

He said data from other Southeast Asian countries show that 90 percent of their college students are enrolled in state colleges where the tuition is shouldered by the State.

“Through our failure to adequately invest in our educational system, we are perpetrating a vicious cycle of graduating students who are less than competent, lacking the mastery of skills and abilities needed to become competitive,” Angara said.

Angara, a former Senate president, noted that human development, mainly through education, is at the heart of competitiveness

Angara cited a study saying three events could trigger system-wide reforms: “First, is a political or economic crisis gripping the nation; second, the presence of an energetic and visionary education or political leader who will steer
reform; and finally, a dramatic, high profile paper on the dismal state of education in a country, which will impel our policy-makers into swift action.”

The senator said two of these are present in the country now – Secretary Luistro as a dedicated and passionate leader, and a global economic crisis that did not spare our country – making the time ripe for reform.

“We used to be the teachers of practically all Asians. They used to come here to learn from us all the sciences and disciplines of knowledge, but now we go to them with a begging bowl. The sense of outrage must compel us to
move fast and urgently,” he pointed out.

Angara had sponsored the Kindergarten Education Act and the Early Years Act, passed last week on third and final reading.

He said he supports the addition of two more years to basic education to bring our country at par with international standards. — MARIO B. CASAYURAN, Manila Bulletin