Better education leads to more jobs, says exec

Better education can provide more job opportunities for Filipinos and reduce the poverty rate in the country.

John Forbes, senior adviser of the American Chamber-Investment Climate Improvement Project AmCham-ICIP, said last Friday that this was one way to improve the country’s economic performance.

He said the national government should increase the public education budget to at least P400 billion or about 3.5 to 4 percent of the gross domestic product of the country.

The budget will be used to acquire more teachers and revise the curriculum to enhance the quality of education, Forbes said.

He said the budget would also provide improvement to school facilities including classrooms, textbooks and computers.

“We need to change the whole setting of only one teacher for a class of fifty students,” Forbes said.

He said the government should also pay attention to the “mismatch” between the skills and education of Filipino workers.

He said more college graduates were getting jobs that was not in line with their education.

He said graduates should be encouraged to study in the fields needed for specialized position.

Forbes, who presented his book Arangkada 2010: A Business Perspective to the American Chamber of Commerce Cebu Chapter members on Friday, said his book discussed the three main concerns of the business sector especially the foreign investors in the country.

These are corruption, infrastructure and political instability.

It also discussed ways to reshape the current track of the country’s economy. /Correspondent Princess Kathleene A. Gabunales