PASAY CITY — The Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) on Monday (July 7) called for the strengthening of K to 12 as it revealed the 2025 State of Philippine Education with the theme: “Charting a New Course: Reforms and Renewed Hope in Philippine Education”.
In a press conference at Milagritos, Tryp Hotel, noting that “Education is everybody’s business”,PBEd President Dr. Chito Salazar said that PBEd has been doing this for the last 10 years and every school opening.
“We are still with the EdCom, TESDA, and ChEd and we still believe that there is still hope for the country’s education,” Dr. Salazar said.
However, he said “We really need to focus on the problems. This is the right time for the right leadership.”
“The problems of education are large and huge and they are continuing,” he added.
“Hindi po tama na 20% of our school children are stunted,” Dr. Salazar said.
He believes that ahead of any infrastructure projects in the country, the most important thing is education.
“We must make education everyone’s business,” Dr. Salazar said.
He stressed that with the decrease in budget in education in the 1960s, it started the decline in education.
Dr. Salazar noted that K to 12 need not be criticized as it needs more time to nurture.
“Huwag nating sisihin ang mga teacher because they are also part of the system,” he said.
He added that the teachers have many problems and they need career progression and not to remain as Teacher 1 until their retirement.
“Removing K to 12 is even more anti-poor because they are even the loser if they would not be given the chance to study for 12 years,” Dr. Salazar said.
“Tripocalization is not even perfect,” he added.
Dr Salazar pointed out that K to 12 need not be phased out, but rather, it should be fixed such that a Grade 4 who could not read can still be remedied in 2 years.
The PBEd is calling on decentralization in such a way that to focus on strengthening the course skills, flexibility to work and they are ready to work and let them decide and work for themselves.
AI (Artificial Intelligence) can help the students and make them catch up. AI is not a threat,” Dr. Salazar said.
PBEd was established in 2006-2007 and they were among the first who urged for the implementation of K to 12.
The Mother Tongue Law, which is just months ahead of the K to 12, where the students must study in the language they know and understand.
On the DepEd order on the Mother Tongue Law, Dr. Salazar said “I think the locality must be given the opportunity to decide.”
PBEd Executive Director Hanibal Camua said “Our learners are raising for time. We need to put focus on education.”
The Mother Tongue Law is just months ahead of the K to 12.
The problem starts from 0 to 5 years old or Kindergarten or Grades 1 to 4.
He cited the EdCom 1 in 1990, K to 12 passage in 2013 and the 2nd Congressional Education Commission.
Over the past decades and concerted efforts are ongoing. However, our learners’ performance continue to decline.
“Our teachers are not capacitated to. Our graduates cannot find jobs, while industries can’t find the right talent,” Camua said.
“The future of our country hinges on how we prepare our education,” he added.
“More than the budget for education, it is better to know where it is allocated,” Camua said.
The common goal of going to school is to have a bright future or a good job and it needs a whole of society approach where private and public complementary can address the backlog of classrooms.
Camua added that the learners should be taught on the proper use of the social media platforms.
Decongesting the senior high schools has been undertaken on more than 800 schools by DeEd where there is an immersion of 600 hours supervised by industry leaders.
Reading, comprehension and mathematics have to be strengthened.
Samantha Uichico, PBEd Senior Program Manager, said that the country needs to have 47,000 assessors to address the “backlog”.
“The education crisis is the result of our decades of neglect,” Gomez said.
9 out of 10 learners can’t understand simple text. 62% of teachers teach outside specialization.
Clarisse Gomez, PBEd Senior Program Manager, cited the cases of Myra Dagdagen, a Grade 11 STEM, Justine Agustin, a senior high school principal, and Winniefreta Domenez.
Likewise, Jonald Macrohon, from Zamboanga City.
“Learning from high school to college is rushed and pressured,” Gomez said.
“With EdCom 2 ending soon, we may lose the momentum,” Camua said, adding that “national policy must set the direction.”
We need to invest in education. EdCom2 will soon end.
We need to institutionalize the Local School Board
We need to realign TVET and High Educational Institute.
PBEd Chairman Ramon del Rosario, Jr. said that
“Never let a good crisis go to waste,” he quoted the late British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. ###