Villar seeks entrepreneurship subject in HS

MANILA, Philippines - Senator Cynthia Villar is pushing for the inclusion of entrepreneurship as a subject in high school.

Villar, in filing Senate Bill 147, noted that many of those who started small businesses eventually became big business owners.

The micro, small and medium enterprises sector represents 92 percent of all businesses and 66 percent of all jobs in the country and continued development of this key sector should be pursued and introduced to all Filipinos as early as high school, she said.

She said only a handful of schools, particularly those considered as non-traditional or progressive, teach entrepreneurship or expose their students to small business practices.

Villar said in other countries, entrepreneurship education starts as early as elementary school and progresses through all levels of education, including adult education.

Under Villar’s bill, the education secretary would appoint a head subject specialist from the Bureau of Secondary Education who would take charge of coordinating all activities necessary for the development and implementation of the subject in the secondary level.

The head subject specialist would be tasked to conduct multi-sectoral consultation with educators from public and private high schools, members of the national chambers of commerce and industry, leading entrepreneurs and the public at large to determine the appropriate content and scope of the entrepreneurship subject.

Villar said the inclusion of this subject is in consonance with the policy of the state “to provide a complete, adequate and integrated system of education to public and private school students.”

She said entrepreneurs feel that they have more opportunity to exercise creative freedoms, have a higher self-esteem and an overall greater sense of control over their own lives.

Many business people, political leaders, economists and educators believe that fostering a robust entrepreneurial culture will maximize individual and collective economic and social success on a local, national and global scale, she added.