Teachers form human chain in QC, press education for all

About a hundred teachers from various public and private schools in Metro Manila formed a human chain along the busy intersection of Banawe street and Quezon Avenue in Quezon City yesterday to dramatize their full support to the United Nations’ "Education For All" (EFA) program.

The participants were mostly members of the militant Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) led by its chairperson Antonio Tinio.

Tinio said ACT is deeply concerned about the failure of the Arroyo administration, particularly the Department of Education (DepEd), to meet the annual targets for the EFA.

Tinio said yesterday’s activity was launched by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE), a global coalition of child rights activists, teachers’ unions and development organizations from around the world working to make the right to education a reality for all.

He said the GCE calls for the fulfillment of the six EFA goals by 2015 which aims to expand early childhood care and education, ensure free and compulsory quality primary education for all children and ensure equal access to learning and life-skills for adults and young people.

The EFA also wants to see a 50 percent improvement in adult literacy rates, achieve gender parity in education by 2005 and gender equality by 2015, and improve the quality of education.

"The Philippine government is falling behind in its commitments to EFA. Over five million children of school age are out of school, and the dropout rates are increasing," said Tinio.

ACT is a member of Education International, the world’s largest organization of education workers, with affiliates in 170 countries.

The group particularly calls on the government to offer a legally binding guarantee that primary education shall be free and compulsory for all.

They are seeking education spending to be increased to at least six percent of gross domestic product (GDP), with at least half of the amount going to basic.

"Making primary education compulsory entails a much higher level of commitment on the part of the state to guaranteeing education for all its citizens," explained Tinio.

The GCE has designated April 23 to 29 as its Global Action Week, which is an occasion for education rights activists throughout the world to link up and form the world’s longest human chain. – Rainier Allan Ronda