In education, start early but offer top quality

Congratulations to Senator Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara. He is the new secretary of the Department of Education. On July 20, 2024, he succeeds Vice President Sara Duterte who resigned for personal reasons, unwelcome in President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s Cabinet.

Sonny inherits the biggest bureaucracy in the government, with close to one million teachers and a P715.2-billion budget for 2024 alone.

Under the 2025 national budget, DepEd has taken on a hugely ambitious mission – the so-called Matatag Agenda:

• MAke the curriculum relevant to produce competent and job-ready, active and responsible citizens;

• TAke steps to accelerate delivery of basic education facilities and services;

• TAke good care of learners by promoting learner well-being, inclusive education and a positive learning environment and

• Give support to teachers for them to teach better.

Specifically, DepEd will:

• Strengthen and expand access to early childhood education;

• Ensure access to learning resources;

• Accelerate the delivery of basic education facilities;

• Develop and pursue globally competitive and inclusive technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and higher education programs.

Plainly, the agenda is improve the quality of public education – elementary and high school education. Today, that quality is one of the worst in the world. In 2022, out of 81 countries that took global tests for competency in reading, math and science – and creativity, Filipino 15-year-olds were second to last or third from the last. We beat two or three countries much smaller and much poorer than us.

Is Sonny Angara matatag or tough enough for the job? Last time I was talking to him, Sunday night at the Kalayaan Hall holding room for those attending the Concert at Malacañang Park as guests of the First Couple, genial Sonny was gung-ho about being DepEd secretary. He knows its problems by heart. He is incensed at the poor quality of Filipino children’s education. He wants something done – fast and substantial.

Sonny has tremendous gravitas – basic education at Xavier School, bachelor of science in international relations, with honors, from London School of Economics; law degree from the University of the Philippines and master of laws at Harvard. He was also a law professor.

In 2023, the think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) reviewed EdCom2 and found a number of challenges.

EdCom2 was a pet project of Sonny’s dad, the late Senate president Edgardo Angara, on reforming the Philippine educational system. In education, the earlier you educate kids, the better for them, the better for the country.

The No. 1 problem is poor quality of early childhood education.

Yes, pre-kinder and kindergarden enrolment is increasing – 98 percent of 3- to 4-year-olds attend kinder schooling. But the dropout rate from kinder schooling is very high – 60 percent. Education, after all, is about quality, not numbers. In junior high school, the share of private school enrolment has fallen, from 50 percent in 1970-71 to less than 20 percent today.

Public elementary and high school education is really the problem. About 90 percent of Filipino pupils are enrolled in public elementary schools; 80 percent of high school pupils are in public high schools. So the problem lies with the national government which runs these public schools. Government is not delivering quality education.

PIDS says early childhood education sector faces at least four challenges:

(1) chronic malnutrition;

(2) the 20:1 ratio of children to child development workers reported in early childhood care and development, which is above the recommended ratios;

(3) 75 percent of the three percent who did not complete elementary schooling between school year (SY) 2018-2019 and SY 2019-2020 dropped out between kindergarten and Grade 4, of whom about 60 percent dropped out between kindergarten and Grade 1; and

(4) the need to articulate a framework for early childhood education and assess its quality.

“Stunting is the most bothersome among these challenges,” says PIDS. One in three Filipino children under five years old is stunted. We are among the top 10 countries in the world with the highest number of malnourished and stunted children.

“Philippine education system is treading on thin ice,” says PIDS. Per a 2022 World Bank report on global learning poverty, nine in 10 Filipinos could not read and understand a simple age-appropriate text at age 10. “With the longest school closure among 122 countries and highly unequal access to the internet, digital education resources and home support, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the situation,” says PIDS.

The World Bank report is just the tip of the iceberg. In 2018, the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) showed only one out of five Filipino students achieved a minimum proficiency level in reading and mathematical literacies.

Moreover, the Filipino students’ average scores for both literacies were significantly lower than those of the member-countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Observes the PIDS review: “The proficiency level of Filipino students across social class, rural and urban residence, gender, language at home, type of school and early childhood attendance is dismally low.”

Students from private schools perform better on tests, but their share of enrolment is continuously dwindling. For instance, the share of the private sector in junior high schools continuously declined from more than 50 percent in SY 1970-1971 to 20 percent in SY 2018-2019.

Per PIDS, students’ low test scores correlate with the late start of formal schooling at Grade 1; lack of parental support and low models of aspirations; lack of resources in school, such as learning materials and classrooms; absence of information and communications technologies at home and prevalence of bullying and lack of discipline in school.

Good luck, Secretary Sonny.

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