Fresh new start for the Education Sector

School Year 2024-2025 is about to open in two weeks, with a new DepEd Secretary at the helm, former Senator Sonny Angara who will be assuming his post in a few days before the opening of classes. The new DepEd Chief faces the gargantuan challenge of addressing the woes of the Philippine Educational system which include, among others, the problem of a huge deficit in classrooms and the lackluster performance of Filipino students in global educational assessments.

Education remains a luxury that the poor Filipino family cannot afford, and this being said, poverty still remains the biggest obstacle in having access to education. In recent years, we have attempted to solve this malady with the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), providing cash transfers to poor families to assist them in meeting their basic needs, including educational supplies for their children. The question of whether its implementation has achieved its desired outcomes is an entirely different discussion, but I would like to believe that it has put more children inside the classroom and out of the streets working and fending for themselves.

I have also recently learned of another program, called the Alternative Learning System, which is a non-formal educational system that provides skills training and basic education to adults and out-of-school youth who have not completed their primary or secondary education, These are all noteworthy initiatives to address the challenges of the educational sector. The new DepEd Secretary gives the sector a fresh, new beginning, bringing with him a keen understanding of these multifaceted and complex challenges, and a new vigor coupled with the intellectual capability to make the much-needed reforms to improve the quality of education in the country.

Kudos to President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr for this choice. We look forward to more notable developments in the Department of Education with the new DepEd Secretary who, lest we forget, is the son of the Education champion, the late Senator Edgardo Angara!

QUOTATION FOR THE WEEK:

“EDUCATION IS NOT THE FILLING OF A PAIL, BUT THE LIGHTING OF A FIRE”

- WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

FOR OUR WORD OF LIFE:

“THE FEAR OF THE LORD IS THE BEGINNING OF KNOWLEDGE: FOOLS DESPISE WISDOM AND INSTRUCTION”

- PROVERBS 1:7