Sara outlines priorities to address education gap

MANILA, Philippines — A set of seven focus areas for the Department of Education (DepEd) was unveiled yesterday by Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte in a bid to fulfill the Marcos administration’s education agenda.

Speaking at the DepEd Partners Convergence meeting at the National Museum of Natural History in Manila last Thursday, Duterte said the priority interventions focus on: finance, school infrastructure and facilities, administration, curriculum and teaching, human resources and organizational development, operations and procurement.

For finance, Duterte said her team’s priority includes capacity building on employees’ loan management system and financial literacy programs for DepEd personnel and students.

She also pushed for construction or rehabilitation of school buildings, building disaster-resilient schools, retrofitting classrooms and electrification.

In terms of curriculum, the Vice President cited the need to strengthen literacy and numeracy programs, review the mother tongue-based multilingual education, digitize national assessments, strengthen inclusive education programs and promote inclusive teaching approaches.

Also among the priorities were the development of quality assurance effectiveness, upscaling of the National Educators’ Academy of the Philippines and knowledge sharing from the partners in their expertise as their priority programs for interventions.

For operations, Duterte cited the need to provide mobile medical and dental clinics and enhance the school-based feeding program, learner rights and protection mechanisms, mental health program, learner and youth program development and the farm-to-table nutrition project.

DepEd will also prioritize technical assistance in improving the procurement processes of the agency through continuous capacity-building and digitalization.

“As we work towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in basic education, we must acknowledge that no organization or government can achieve them alone. We need strong partnerships that involve all actors, including the private sector, civil society and local communities,” said the Vice President. — Cecille Suerte Felipe