The Manila Times
AS millions of students return to school today, calls to reform the education system continue to resonate amid challenges and problems. The report of the Second Congressional Commission on Education (Edcom 2) that convened in 2022 enumerated the problems facing the Philippine education system and possible ways to solve them. The report, “Turning Point: A Decade of Necessary Reform (2026–2035),” aims not just to show how the country’s education system has worsened, but also why it happened and how to address longstanding issues. Speaking to The Manila Times, Edcom 2 Executive Director Dr. Karol Mark Yee said the reforms were structured in a 10-year plan, since any three- or six-year reform will “always keep restarting.” “It means that for every year for the next 10 years, the work that we need to do is clear and that we cannot change course in between because once you change course, we will drop the ball again and we are back to square one,” Yee said. Among the report’s major findings is the declining proficiency of students as they advance toward the system. From 30 percent when a student reaches Grade 3, proficiency drops to 1.36 percent by Grade 10, and only 0.47 percent by Grade 12, based on the Department of Education’s (DepEd) National Achievement Test scores during school year 2023–2024. It was compounded by the low scores of Filipino students in the most recent Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) exams held in 2022, where 15-year-old students received a mean score of 355 points in mathematics, 347 in reading, and 356 in science — one of the lowest among Southeast Asian countries. In the final report, Edcom 2 is aiming that by 2035, at least 90 percent of Grade 12 students are proficient, but Yee said the target can be achieved by applying reforms. “And we feel that if we do the reforms that are listed in the report, if we fund it with the right resources needed to make these reforms actually happen, we will get to that number because we have seen that as long as we are focused, we are able to really achieve it,” Yee said. In the last three years, the commission has been working with stakeholders, including teachers, youth leaders, principals, regional directors, superintendents and even the private sector to have a “better understanding of the problems” and possible solutions, Yee said. Yee pointed out that the report detailed the problems “without sugarcoating” and that the blueprint won’t be siloed by agency but a full sectoral perspective. “So what is the role of CHED (Commission on Higher Education) when it comes to ECCD (Early Childhood Care and Development)? It is clear. What is the role of DepEd for literacy before they go to college? And so it shows very clearly how everything is interdependent. The agencies cannot work in isolation because our success depends on all of them coordinating regularly,” Yee said. Grading change Among the reforms are the removal of the transmutation table for grading, which does not reflect the “accurate reality” that a child is struggling when it comes to learning. “Let us move towards a system that is more faithful to what is the actual challenge being faced by the student as a way for us to be able to respond better to the needs of the student,” he said. Transmutation is only one part of the problem. There are chronic issues such as classroom size, textbooks, and even teachers having to fill up forms and doing administrative tasks outside of their mandates as teachers. “We need to decongest classrooms, we need to deliver the textbooks, we need to fix our grading system, we need to decongest the curriculum. Because we saw that the reason students don’t reach mastery is that there is so much content packed in that the teacher just rushes through it; even if the students haven’t reached proficiency, the teacher has to move on to the next lesson because they won’t be able to finish everything [otherwise],” Yee said. He said that while schools division offices remain devolved and decentralized, there should be continued monitoring from the central office. “It can’t be a ‘black and white’ devolution where we just say, ‘you’re on your own now.’ It’s not going to happen that way because central office ultimately still designs policies that will definitely affect the ground. If they are not cognizant of the realities happening on the ground, it will not be responsive,” Yee said. Public and private school complementarity is also a key focus of the report, with recommendations such as the expansion of the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (Gastpe) to include the expansion of the voucher program to Kinder to Grade 6 students. The private education system “should be seen as partners of education because they have been serving its purpose for more than a century already, but not only for access but access to quality and access to the actual programs that the students would like to choose that are unavailable in the public side,” Yee said. Integrated approach In a recent forum organized by the Seameo (Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization)-Innotech, Dr. Akihiro Fushimi, Education chief of the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) Philippines, said that improving learning outcomes requires a “more integrated approach that connects education with the broader ecosystem of services that support child development.” “A child is not divided by departments. The missing link in the Philippine education system is the lack of real coordination across the board — one that connects education, health, social protection from national, province, municipal, and barangay-level,” Fushimi said. Yee said that the most important lesson from the work of Edcom 2 is the value of making data accessible and actionable. In a separate interview, House Basic Education Committee chairman and Pasig City Rep. Roman Romulo said the biggest part of the reforms is to ensure that they are implemented properly in the coming years. “Even if it has only been two years, we can already see at least its beginnings being implemented properly. [Certainly], the reforms will take probably a little more than five years, eight years,” Romulo, a co-chairman of the commission, said. Among the Edcom 2 bills being deliberated at the House is the subsidy program, which would allow Kindergarten to Grade 6 students to study in private schools. Romulo said the program could help ease the chronic lack of classrooms. Also being considered is allowing non-LET (Licensure Examinations for Teachers) teachers to be given the Teachers’ Salary Subsidy (TSS). For the higher education front, House Higher Education Committee chairman and Tingog Party-list Rep. Jude Acidre said that among the reforms being pushed are changes in the Universal Access to Public and Tertiary Education or UAQTE bill which would prioritize students in the 4Ps (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program). A voucher program for private colleges will also be introduced, as well as allowing dual citizens to teach in colleges and universities and strengthening the State Universities and Colleges to have “differentiated autonomy.” Acidre believes that the internationalization of Philippine colleges is important since the country needs to be “open and attuned” to the reality of a globalized learning community. “The whole thing is we’ve shown a model that creates continuity from policymaking to implementation. The laws we are making now, these are the results — not just because of the whims of congressmen, but because these are the results of the thorough study and intensive research we conducted in Edcom 2,” Acidre told The Manila Times. On the prospects of an Edcom 3, Yee, Romulo and Acidre want to see the reforms of the second commission bear fruit first, but agreed that the changes in education down the road would affect how the reforms are being done. “Perhaps an Edcom 3 won’t be necessary in the future, but what is needed is a continued systematic review of how we are doing as a country against the proposed targets of EDCOM, so that at least every three years, we are able to measure our success and what the country needs to do in a coherent way,” Yee said. “I think after Edcom 2, with the recommendations, it will be OK. It can then proceed to oversight of DepEd, CHED and Tesda. All you need is proactive legislators,” Romulo said. “I think it’s a reality that we have to contend with for us to be more relevant, we have to be more open to innovation, be more agile. But then again, I think we have achieved so much in the last 3 years that there is so much to be done to make it more impactful, to allow it to contribute to the more long-term improvement of our education system,” Acidre said. Acidre said the challenge now is to turn the reports into action, action into results, and results into a better future for learners and the country. “That work begins now, and it belongs to all of us. With courage, determination, and shared purpose, we can build an education system that gives every Filipino child the chance to learn fully, grow freely, and live with dignity, opportunity, and hope.” he said. RED MENDOZA
Go to News Site
