BAGUIO CITY--President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo spent New Year's Eve with national and local school officials at the presidential Mansion here, discussing the future of education for the remaining years of her term.

Armando Galimba, executive vice president of the University of Baguio, said the group asked the President to help untangle what has become the "disjointed direction" of government agencies administering the schools system in the country.

Arroyo and Education Undersecretary Ramon Bacani led a two-hour closed-door session with about 20 representatives of private and government-run colleges and universities in Northern Luzon, among them the University of the Philippines Baguio and the Philippine Military Academy, to review the findings of a presidential task force monitoring the progress of a medium-term plan for education.

Part of the task force's findings was that the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd), the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) have fought a protracted "turf" war for dwindling government resources, Galimba said.

By "protecting their turfs," these agencies hope to obtain enough fiscal advantage to pursue their respective solutions to the educational crisis, he said.

Malacañang requires these agencies to impose policy reforms for the teaching of the English language and mathematics because of recent surveys that show elementary and high school students graduating with poor English and math proficiencies, Galimba said.

But the bureaucracy has hurt the way government administers schools and universities, he said.

Both DepEd and CHEd have different processes for accrediting private schools, "which has confused many of us," he said.

Galimba, a former Cordillera director of the Department of Trade and Industry, said the agencies and the schools agreed to hold an education congress by the end of this month to flesh out "corrective measures" for the Philippine school system.

Freddie Bernal, CHEd Cordillera director, said Ms Arroyo directed Bacani and officials of CHEd and the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) to set up a mechanism that would forge a "unified direction" for CHEd, DepEd and Tesda.

Galimba presented to the President a situationer from the perspective of private educators, after Dr. Mona Valisno, presidential assistant for education, and her team presented the task force's findings to the school heads.