Salceda proposes comprehensive education agenda following President Duterte’s directive to reform K to 12; considers K to 12 modification to fund programs that “address the roots of the problem”
House Ways and Means Committee Chair Joey Sarte Salceda (Albay, 2nd District) will be filling bills constituting his comprehensive education reform agenda in response to President Duterte’s directive to the Department of Education (DepEd) to study changes to the K to 12 program. The measures come after DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones discussed with President Duterte the results of the Programme for International Student Assessment, which showed that Filipino students ranked the lowest among 79 countries in reading comprehension, and second to the lowest in math and science.
“In the coming days, I will be filing the most comprehensive education reform agenda ever introduced in Congress after the People Power Revolt,” Salceda said.
Salceda’s 10-point agenda for Education is as follows:
1. Equitable funding for all schools, with a preferential approach to public schools in poor areas
2. Institute a teacher-supportive, teacher-empowering education system
3. Expanded after-school and remedial education program
4. Universal access to nutrition in public schools
5. Expanded school-community relations, with schools as community centers
6. “Build, Build, Build” for education
7. Safer schools for teachers and students
8. Empowering special education facilities
9. Comprehensive Workforce Development for the 21st Century
10. Optional adoption of the mother-tongue-based learning, keeping it where it has worked, and reviewing it where it has failed.
“This country’s most valuable resource, its most productive asset, is the Filipino people. And education is the greatest investment you can make on your people,” Salceda said.
Salceda’s drive for education reform is part of what the economist-lawmaker calls his “National Economic Resiliency Agenda,” which includes countryside development, human capital development, disaster mitigation and adaptation, urban-rural linkages, and rapid and sustained economic expansion.
As for funding sources for his comprehensive education agenda, Salceda says that seeking out public resources is part of his duty as Chair of the House Committee on Ways and Means. “I am co-responsible for finding the means to fund these programs through new revenue measures. But I must say that modifying K to 12, if we find that it has not worked, should not be off the table. I would like to hear the thoughts of Secretary Briones on the matter,” Salceda said.
“What’s clear is it’s not the length of time that improves education quality. Spending more years in bad schools won’t improve education outcomes. Good schools will. My agenda is to make schools better,” Salceda added.
Under then-Governor Salceda, Albay was hailed as a “model” for basic education. When Salceda was governor, Albay improved National Achievement Test (NAT) performance from a poor 177th place in 2007 to 19th place in 2012, increased participation rate in NAT from 72 percent in 2007 to 98 percent in 2013 in elementary, vastly reduced school dropout rate to only 0.2 percent at present versus national average of 1.3 percent, and financed the education of the largest pool of college graduates scholars outside of a national government program.
