EDUCATION Secretary Sonny Angara yesterday touted the accomplishments of the department as he neared his 100-day mark on the job but acknowledged that more needed to be done to ensure the delivery of quality basic education in the country.
In a speech before the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, Angara provided a rundown of the DepEd’s accomplishments and progress with him at the helm.
“We are reaching our 100 days. I have to tell you we are already low on our red urgent tags,” Angara told the gathering.
“I remind my team that there are no quick, easy answers for a system of this scale. Policies, though long-awaited, remain a work in progress. Nothing is final. Everything will be up for feedback,” he added.
The long-time legislator was appointed by President Marcos Jr to replace Vice President Sara Duterte after she resigned from the Cabinet.
Angara said he and his team prioritized the basics, namely, making the curriculum flexible, gearing up early for international assessments, and raising teachers’ allowances and benefits, among others.
“This includes a curriculum that ensures functional literacy and numeracy, a disciplined plan for local and international assessments and the Senior High School’s full promise of employability,” he said.
“As for our resources, we don’t aim for abundance. We just want them on time. I’m grateful that some of the best technocrats and reformists have joined my team to make this happen,” he added.
Angara said the DepEd will fulfill the President’s marching orders to “secure the basics and make the students ready for work.”
To ensure the welfare of the teachers, Angara said the department is making fiscal room to provide them an additional allowance.
“What we can’t put money on, we are making up for it in benefits. This includes additional service credits and leaves. We’re reviewing our teacher development plan,” he said, adding that teachers need to have the dignity of career promotion and progression.
Angara earlier said there would be “curriculum stability” under his watch while “dramatic actions” would be taken to address the perennial classroom shortage in the country.
“We want to have curriculum stability. They said every time there is a new DepEd Secretary, there is also a new curriculum. But I have no plans to change the curriculum,” Angara said.
“We just want to work from what’s already there, so we will continue the piloting of the Matatag curriculum for Grades 1, 4, and 7 for this year,” he added.
The Matatag curriculum targets the “decongestion” of the current curriculum to improve the quality of basic education in the country.
Among the revisions in the K to 10 program include reducing the number of competencies and greater emphasis on the development of foundational skills such as literacy, numeracy, and socio-emotional skills from Kinder to Grade 3 learners.
The current curriculum has seven competencies, namely, Mother Tongue, Filipino, English, Mathematics, Araling Panlipunan, MAPEH, and Edukasyon sa Pagpapakatao.
Under the Matatag curriculum there will only be five competencies, namely, Language, Reading and Literacy, Mathematics, Makabansa, and GMRC.
Angara also promised dramatic actions to address the classroom shortage, which he said stands at around 159,000 nationwide.
During the Senate hearing on the DepEd budget for 2024, the department said it would need at least P397 billion to address the current classroom backlogs. Each classroom costs around P2 million.
FRESH APPEAL
Angara also issued a fresh appeal to the private sector to help solve the crisis in basic education in the country.
He said that even if the department is running on a budget of more than P700 billion, it is still not enough to address critical shortages since most of the funding goes to pay the salaries and allowances of more than 900,000 public school teachers nationwide.
He added that efforts of the DepEd to address these shortages on its own are not enough, adding any help would be a welcome development.
“This remains a massive system. We come to events like this to welcome more partners. The outpouring of support has been heartening. My team sometimes jokes: Under new management, it’s nice to hear, but it’s nicer to sign more partnerships,” he said.
“The private sector has always been our accountability partner. In a cycle of leadership changes, they help ensure that programs continue. Time and time again you have believed that DepEd is not one giant island. This system is only as good as the bridges that we build together,” he added.
Angara said he needs the help of the private sector to help deliver more than two million laptops to schools in rural areas, to energize 2,001 schools that do not have electricity yet, and build the 8,000 Last Mile Schools in far-flung areas.
Latest data shows the department only has one computer for every 30 teachers nationwide while the student-to-computer ratio stands at 1:9.
“If you could build a few classrooms there, our students wouldn’t have to cross rivers to attend classes,” he added.
He said the private sector can also provide technical expertise and technology to DepEd and assist in providing education to 300,000 differently-abled students.
“DepEd faces unique challenges as the largest bureaucracy. But with your support, we can transform this massive system into a force for positive change. I hope you join me not just in my first 100 days, but also in hundreds more to come. DepEd may be the largest, but with partners like you, certainly, we are not the loneliest,” he added.
