Troubled by the poor marks for educational access and quality earned by the Philippines in various international rankings, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian is pushing for a comprehensive performance review of the country’s education system.
Gatchalian’s proposed Senate Resolution No. 675, “directs the appropriate Senate committee to conduct an inquiry, in aid of legislation, into the current state of the Philippine education system,” with particular focus on gauging the “effectiveness and efficacy of existing education laws and policies.”
“Essentially our aim is to conduct an honest, objective performance review of the entire education system, encompassing everything from day care all the way up to the post-graduate level, as well as non-formal and special education,” said Gatchalian, the vice chairman of the Senate committee on education, arts and culture.
He said the feedback collected from the comprehensive review will be critical to guiding the government in crafting and implementing legislative and policy reforms.
He said this will empower the state to fulfill its obligation under the Constitution and international laws to provide Filipinos with access to quality education at all levels.
In his resolution, Gatchalian acknowledged the government has already put into motion recent reforms aimed at “expanding access to and improving the quality of the Philippine education system,” including the K-12 Law, the UniFAST Law, and the Free Higher Education Law.
Despite the passage of these laws, however, the Philippines continues to receive poor marks for education in international performance indices.
In the Global Competitiveness Index 2017-2018 released by the World Economic Forum, the Philippines ranked 66th out of 137 countries for quality of primary education, 74th for quality of higher education, and 76th for quality of math and science education.
The Philippine education system did even worse in the 2017 Global Innovation Index, where it was ranked at a dismal 113th place out of 127 countries.
“I am hopeful that this Senate inquiry will serve as the solid foundation atop which we can build the world-class education system that the Filipino people deserve,” Gatchalian said.