Footsteps in the Wrong Direction
A few months ago, Vice President Sara Duterte resigned from her position as the secretary of the Department of Education. This move was met with a collective sigh of relief from the general public. Her resignation validated the disappointment many felt about the lack of improvement in basic education during her term. It was a move that was long overdue, as she had consistently been seen as unfit for the position. In her two years as Education Secretary, her inexperience in the field was put on full display as the education system regressed into a state of crisis.
Under her term, Duterte failed to address the many prevalent issues in the Philippine education system and implemented mismatched reforms. In 2022, the World Bank recorded a Philippine learning poverty of 91%, a figure that corresponds to the percentage of our students that are not proficient in reading. We ranked fourth-to-last in the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which assesses the subject areas of Mathematics, Science, and Reading. These poor results were attributed to longstanding concerns, such as the shortage of classrooms, the decline of mental health, the lack of relevant assessments, and the mass promotion of learners caused by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2010.
That same year, Vice President Duterte requested P150 million worth of confidential funds without disclosing a reason, vaguely expounding that “education is intertwined with national security.” Soon after, she vowed to resolve the education crisis in six years if given P100 billion during the budget deliberations. With such a large amount of funds, it comes as a surprise that she could only implement underwhelming reforms like mandatory toothbrush drills and dedicate a day to fostering values, health, and peace education via the 'Catch-up Friday.' She also ordered the return of face-to-face classes amid a lack of health protocols and the removal of classroom decorations to promote concentration despite a lack of supporting evidence. Not only are these reforms either senseless or insignificant, but they barely justify her hefty budget allocation.
When Duterte was the education secretary, DepEd only built 192 out of 3,600 classrooms, amounting to 0.05% of its target. According to a Commission on Audit report, the funds were “not efficiently and effectively” used due to setbacks in construction and procurement. Moreover, DepEd incurred P12 billion in disallowances under her leadership, hinting at severe financial mismanagement. House representatives also accused Duterte of losing P1.6 billion for allegedly rigging the bid for laptops. With all these ill-used funds and poor financial management, it's hard to reconcile Duterte's bold claim in 2022 that she could fix the education sector in six years with P100 billion, which only became one of her many empty promises.
Duterte’s flagship initiative is among her only significant contributions as the education secretary, and it will be handed over to her successor less than halfway through its execution. In 2023, she introduced “MATATAG,” a program for basic education from Kindergarten to Grade 10 to be implemented in the school year 2024 to 2025. Its provisions include a rudimentary curriculum focused on literacy and numeracy skills and improved facilities and services. These efforts are made to decongest the curriculum by reducing the number of competencies by 70% to focus on fundamentals.
However, a study by the Second Congressional Commission on Education and the Philippine Institute for Development Studies revealed that preliminary results show similar levels of competency coverage between pilot schools and non-pilot schools. Duterte later admitted that she relied on education experts to update the curriculum because she was not qualified enough to do so herself. As a result, with the program still yet to be proven effective, Duterte’s term ends with a legacy of unsuccessful reforms.
In light of the worsening Philippine education crisis, the nation needs someone qualified and competent to lead the DepEd. The appointment of Senator Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Manalang Angara as the new education secretary seems to be a step forward in the education sector. The senator is regarded as more capable and qualified by his colleagues at the Senate, a claim validated by his academic credentials from Harvard Law School, the London School of Economics and Political Science, and the University of the Philippines. Hopefully, Angara’s qualifications will translate into effective education reforms as he addresses the problems inherited from the previous administration. Moving forward, Angara’s leadership must be met with fresh perspectives and a critical mindset, as we hope his efforts will steer the country’s education system in the right direction.
