Miseducation. Solutions. Philippine education.
path and positive workplace in schools. The DepEd must revisit the career path of teachers and administrative personnel based on objective and equitable meritocracy. This will increase job satisfaction and productivity of education personnel, and in effect will attract the best and the brightest to the education sector.
Generate the promises of K-12. The additional two years in basic education should not only be perceived by parents and society as a useless burden. It should be appreciated based on its original intent to provide for exits leading to employability, entrepreneurship, skills development and not only the usual higher education. Competencies and qualifications must make graduates of basic education job- and career-ready. Accelerate digital transformation and reduce digital divide. There has to be massive investment in digital transformation not only for learning but also as learning. Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) must expand to include agriculture to be more relevant to the Philippine context as an agriculturally endowed country. Education must be directed to the future, which is technology.
Revisit the relevance of trifocalization of Philippine education. The trifocalization, as an outcome of the first EdCom, has to be revisited and operationalized to align and harmonize, and ensure seamless transition toward Filipinos’ lifelong learning. Differing and fragmented policies, standards and strategies among the DepEd, Commission on Higher Education, and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority lead to missed opportunities for collaboration for the benefit of the Filipino. There is also a need to integrate early childhood care and development, sports, culture, arts, global citizenship and values in mainstream education.
Abort corruption in the system. The killer of any system is this deeply rooted corruption, which still is in the bureaucracy. There has to be an end to this evil in the very system that should teach values against it. The good senator, as an esteemed legal luminary behind some legislations to curtail the menace, may be up for a challenge in the department with the highest budgetary allocation and widest operational dynamics — and the most critical responsibility for nation-building.
The late senator Edgardo Angara once said that “every Filipino deserves a fighting chance.” The son now holds the baton of Philippine basic education that will give every Filipino not only a fighting chance but a winning chance. After Matatag education, Angara ng Edukasyong Tatak Pinoy is waving.
Godspeed, Secretary Juan Edgardo Manalang Angara.