VICE President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte yesterday said the “collective efforts” of the nation is vital to attain quality education for the country’s basic learners amid the challenges facing the country’s education system.
“As the old adage puts it, ‘It takes a village to educate a child.’ In order to ensure quality, accessible, relevant, and liberating basic education for our learners, we need to sustain our collective efforts as a nation. We still have a long way to go. We need to be resilient. We need to do more,” Duterte said in her opening statement during the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2) meeting at the Senate.
EDCOM 2 was created by virtue of RA 11899 that was passed into law in July last year. Its mandate is to conduct a comprehensive national assessment and evaluation of the performance of the country’s education so it can recommend targeted reforms in the sector aimed at making the Philippines globally competitive in both education and labor markets.
The first EDCOM was established in 1990.
To further improve DepEd’s mandate in ensuring quality education, Duterte said the department launched the MATATAG agenda, an acronym which means by pledging to MAke the curriculum relevant to produce competent and job-ready, active citizens TAke steps to accelerate delivery of basic education facilities and services; TAke good care of learners; and Give support to teachers to teach better.
“As this meeting commences, it is of utmost importance that we are all guided by a common understanding of a systematic and inclusive engagement among stakeholders, which is a critical component in the fulfillment of our goals and targets,” she said.
Duterte also acknowledged the efforts of the EDCOM 2 commissioners led by Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, as EDCOM 2 co-chairperson, for laying out plans and programs to address the learning crisis in the country “and further improve the country’s education system.”
“We welcome suggestions coming from the commissioners and the Advisory Council. If there are ways by which we can collaborate and support one another, we would be glad to hear them, for we believe that the gargantuan task of addressing woes of the education sector will not happen overnight, nor can be achieved by DepEd alone,” she said.
Gatchalian underscored the importance of employing a whole-of-government approach to be able to address the challenges in the education sector.
He said EDCOM 2 and DepEd can take advantage of their respective expertise to come up with “concrete, targeted, and transformative” policies for the sector.
“Together, we can fulfill our vision of providing quality education for every Filipino learner,” he added.
To fulfill this, he said EDCOM2 will prioritize education and nutrition interventions in the early years of learners, make available support to learners in and outside of school, require the active participation of both national and local governments, and employ urgent interventions and long-term programs for the sector.
Gatchalian said they acknowledge the significant progress made by DepEd in the education sector, including the implementation of the K to 12 Basic Education Curriculum, and providing support for training of teachers, and construction and rehabilitation of school buildings, but “we cannot ignore the fact that there remain challenges that need to be addressed.”
“Based on the latest World Bank studies, the Philippines’ learning poverty has worsened and now stands at 90.9 percent. This means that nine out of 10 Filipino children aged 10 cannot read and understand a simple story,” he said.
“By working together, we can align EDCOM2’s priority areas with DepEd’s MATAF Agenda, establish mechanisms for EDCOM2 to collaborate closely with DepEd, and above all, utilize a whole-of-government approach in addressing our common challenges in basic education,” he added.