DESPITE being buffeted by the winds of controversy, Education Secretary Sonny Angara set his sights on a reform-driven agenda to improve learning outcomes across the country. In 2025, Angara launched the Quality Basic Education Development Program, a 10-year blueprint to reform the country’s education system. The program is part of the Five-Point Reform Agenda launched in 2024 and extends the vision of the Basic Education Development Plan (BEDP) adopted in 2022. The plan takes a bold, long-term approach that focuses on three key levers: decentralization, digitalization, and public-private partnerships. “This is our primary policy until the Administration ends. We are continuing to improve our education system. Among all the programs that the administration is prioritizing, this is the top,” Angara said. The agenda follows several education priorities laid out by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in his fourth State of the Nation Address. The priorities include the Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) program, the expansion of the early childhood development centers, and the creation of healthier, more connected learning environments. Other reforms being carried out by Angara are the expansion of the school-based feeding program, and the creation of new child development centers in the country. New teaching positions have also been filled, and administrative staff are being hired that would take over the tasks of teachers to allow them to focus on learning. Some 2,100 school head positions are to be reclassified into school principal positions, moving closer to the goal of one principal per school. The teaching supplies allowance was doubled to P10,000, private school teachers will receive a subsidy of P24,000, and teachers will also get their first-ever medical allowance. DepEd is also working to address classroom shortages by working with the private sector to build 105,000 classrooms to reduce the backlog of 160,000. New modular classrooms, meanwhile, will be created for disaster-hit areas. DepEd is also studying the lease of closed private schools and unused property to ease the classroom shortage through a market scoping activity with different real estate firms. It is making inroads in digital and distance learning with the relaunch of DepEd TV under a partnership with Knowledge Channel Foundation and Solar Entertainment. In the 2026 budget, the Department of Education has been allocated P961.3 billion, the highest in its history. The increase was made possible after more than P200 billion was slashed from the flood control program of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) that had been heavily tainted by corruption. Line items under DepEd that were reallocated by the Bicameral Conference Committee from the flood control programs include the Basic Education Facilities Fund, the Textbook and Learning Materials fund, and the school-based feeding program. Angara himself was drawn into the flood control scandal after one of his senior staffers, Undersecretary Trygve Olaivar, was named in an affidavit by former Public Works undersecretary Roberto Bernardo as among those who received kickbacks from flood control projects. Olaivar denied the accusation, later taking a leave before resigning last November. In an interview with The Manila Times, House Basic Education Committee Chairman and Pasig City Rep. Roman Romulo said that despite all the political noise, the country’s education system is recovering. “We acknowledge that there are different challenges, but we have identified the basic challenge, which is functional literacy, that’s why we have the ARAL Law; DepEd made revisions in the curriculum,” Romulo, the co-chairman of Edcom 2, said. Romulo said he has yet to see the effects of the revised Matatag curriculum introduced in 2023 by then Education secretary and Vice President Sara Duterte, but he is certain that the focus on functional literacy and the removal of certain competencies may see good results in the future. He said the new curriculum should not stop at the Grades 1-3 levels alone, where it is being pilot tested. “We need to rise up. There are initial steps in Grades 11-12; they have piloted the curriculum in around 800 plus schools of the five core subjects, but Grades 4-10 also need these revisions. We should ensure that their reading comprehension and math skills are improved,” Romulo said. To resolve the classroom crisis, he said his committee is proposing that DepEd transfer some students to private schools whose operations were badly affected by the coronavirus pandemic, as well as expand the voucher system to include Kinder to Grade 6. “We revised it; it should not be just input-based. It should be outcomes-based, meaning if you are a private school and you want to avail of financial assistance from the government, there should be an assessment test from the DepEd, as we want equality,” Romulo said. He said that they are also drafting a proposal giving the president to bid out school building construction to construction firms that do not participate in government bidding. This would attract good developers and contractors to build quality school buildings, Romulo said. The Philippines is participating in its third Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) exam organized by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and Romulo believes that if the country scores satisfactorily in the assessment, all schools should adopt the system so that every student will be able to improve.