UP panel analyzes education agenda for the country

MANILA, Philippines - Recent news reports about the Philippine educational system have all been discouraging. All have painted a dire picture of education in the country. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, for instance, cited the Philippines as a “striking example of underperformance in education.”

To address these concerns, a panel of education experts from the University of the Philippines will discuss and analyze the current reform plans and proposals not only in basic education, but in tertiary education in a forum. Titled “The Promise of Redemption: BESRA and the Need for Higher Education Reform,” the forum will be held on Tuesday, March 9, 2010 at the National Institute of Science and Mathematics Education Development (NISMED) Auditorium in UP Diliman (UPD) at 2 o’clock in the afternoon.

Ban Ki-Moon mentioned the following alarming trends: only 65 out of 100 Filipino children who enter school finish primary school; the decline in the total share of education budget vis-à-vis the national government budget; and the large student-teacher ratio at the elementary level, etc.

Moreover, the Philippines requires only 10 years of basic education, two years less than the current world standard, which prevents our graduates from being globally competitive. The Basic Education Sector Reform Agenda (BESRA) which many have lauded as both comprehensive and progressive was supposed to have been in place since 2005, but is yet to make its impact felt. The higher education sector is also beset with a host of problems.

The UP panel, put together by history professor and former UP Vice President for Academic Affairs Maria Serena I. Diokno, is composed of Metrobank Outstanding Professor of the Year Dina Ocampo of UPD’s College of Education, Prof. Ma. Cynthia Rose B. Bautista of the UPD College of Social Sciences and Philosophy, and Prof. Allan B.I. Bernardo of De La Salle University’s Counseling and Educational Psychology Department. The UP forum is a project of the UP Office of the President, Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs, College of Education, and College of Law and is organized by the UP Center for Integrative and Development Center.

Arguing that Philippine education should be treated as cohesive passageways to learning, the panel will examine the philosophical and practical underpinnings of current reform plans and proposals.