Sen. Aquino bares 7 key issues that his panel would prioritize

MANILA, Philippines — Senate Committee on Basic Education chair Bam Aquino bared on Wednesday the seven key issues that his panel would seek to immediately address based on consultations with experts.

In a privilege speech delivered during Wednesday’s plenary session, Sen. Aquino praised the Congressional Commission on Education (EdCom) for its groundbreaking and frank assessment of the country’s education system.

Aquino said the uncoated concerns and critique helped the panel craft its priorities.

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“Mula sa aming mga konsultasyon sa mga lokal na pinuno, mga opisyal ng paaralan, mga magulang, at mga mag-aaral, nakita po namin na malalim ang krisis sa edukasyon, at matagal ng nagtitiis ang mga estudyante sa ating bayan. Nakakabahala at nakakabigla ang pang-araw-araw na buhay ng isang Pilipinong estudyante sa pampublikong paaralan,” said Aquino.

“Our consultations and EdCom’s report form the foundation of the seven key issues we need to address immediately, while recognizing that there are many more issues that remain and many more that will arise,” he added.

Nutrition crisis

According to Aquino, Filipino students now are facing a crisis in nutrition—with only 25 percent of Filipino children aged 6-12 months old meeting the recommended daily energy intake.

This, according to the senator, means that one in every four Filipino children under five years old is stunted.

“To solve undernutrition among Filipino children, we must now work together to pass priority legislation from DepEd that amends this law to strengthen its implementation and provide universal feeding for Kinder to Grade 3 and targeted feeding for Grade 4 to Grade 6. Our children deserve to be well-fed and taken care of so that they’re ready to learn when they get to school,” said Aquino.

Classroom shortage

For the lawmaker, there is also an urgent need to address the classroom shortage in schools, with an additional 165,000 classrooms needed across the country.

Citing the EdCom report, Aquino said Filipino schools are holding more than two shifts a day, and only 30 percent of school buildings across the country are in good condition.

“We will exercise our legislative oversight into investigating the gap between the costs for building classrooms. Through our consultations, nalaman po namin na may mga NGO na gumagastos lang ng maliit sa P1 million para makagawa ng classroom, pero bakit sa gobyerno more than double ang presyo ng classroom sa ating bansa, umaabot po ng P2.5 million pataas. Ang tanong, bakit mas mataas ang halaga ng classrooms na gawa ng gobyerno kaysa ng pribadong sektor? At mahalagang malaman natin ang sagot sa tanong na ito para makapagpagawa tayo ng classroom para sa ating mga estudyante,” he said.

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Access to textbook

Aquino emphasized that Filipino students, up to this day, still lack access to textbooks. Still citing the EdCom report, he said at the halfway point of the current school year, only 37 percent of textbooks titles have been fully delivered for Grades 4 and Grade 7.

“Ibig sabihin noon, kalahating taon tapos na, pero mas mababa sa kalahati ang mga textbook na nakukuha ng mga estudyante. Hindi po nade-deliver ang mga textbook ng mga estudyante natin. This is not a budget issue, but a systemic issue from textbook development, procurement, publishing, and even delivery,” he said.

The senator said their “stopgap solution” to the lack of textbooks is the E-Textbook Para sa Lahat Act.

“Once passed, this law will require the digital availability of all DepEd-approved textbooks for basic education on all official platforms or other authorized channels, for free. Ibig sabihin po noon, sa kauna-unahang araw ng pag-aaral ng mga estudyante, iyong mga textbook na hindi pa nadedeliver sa kanila, puwede nang ma-access online. Our students should be able to access the textbooks on time, whether in print or on the internet,” he explained.

Internet connectivity

Aquino then proceeded to explain that students, teachers, and administrators lack internet connectivity to support their education and aid in providing a multimodal approach to content delivery.

“With internet connectivity, students can supplement their studies with online learning, do further research, and communicate with one another. Teachers use the internet to improve their lessons and methods of teaching. And most importantly, access to the internet and internet literacy from an early age helps equip our students for future employment,” he said.

In order to solve the issue of internet connectivity, Aquino said they plan to exercise the function of legislative oversight and work closely with the Department of Information and Communications Technology, who have underutilized their budget for connectivity since 2020.

“Our students and teachers deserve every possible method to access learning materials, and should not be burdened by additional costs to access the internet,” he underscored.

Teacher support

Fifth is the fact that teachers are overworked, underpaid, and significantly lack support, said Aquino who revealed that two out of three teachers report working on over 50 non-teaching tasks and work more than 40 hours a week.

“To solve the lack of support for teachers, I have filed the Angat Sweldo Para sa Guro Act, which seeks to grant P10,000 monthly compensation to all public school teachers and qualified non-teaching personnel over the next three years. We will also work closely with DepEd in addressing the lack of administrative support for teachers,” he said.

Another reform that was suggested to us by DepEd is to amend the Philippine Teachers Professionalization Act, to provide alternative pathways to teacher licensure, strengthen oversight of underperforming teacher education institutions, and ensure greater transparency and quality in the licensure process. Teachers face a monumental task when educating our children and they should not only be supported, but rewarded for their work,” he added.

The learning gap

Apart from these, Aquino said Filipinos are alarmingly two years behind curriculum expectations.

“EdCom reported that there are Grade 3 students who have Grade 1 level competencies in reading and math. Two years behind. They also report that Grades 8 and 9 students who struggled with basic subtraction and multiplication in the recent DepEd learning camps,” he said.

Aquino said they recognize the urgency to address the gaps in the current curriculum with supplemental and remedial programs and possibly even changes in the curriculum.

“To solve the issue of the learning gap, we will work closely with DepEd on properly implementing the K-12 system and strengthening the National Learning Recovery Program. We will work on adequately funding the National Learning Recovery Program and support groups that work on remedial learning,” he vowed.

Employment

Lastly, the lawmaker said the country’s current education system does not adequately prepare students for employability.

“Our students deserve the opportunity to properly prepare to join and thrive in our nation’s workforce; kasi para sa maraming kabataan, ang edukasyon at pagtatrabaho nila, iyan ang unang hakbang sa pagangat ng buhay ng kanilang pamilya,” he concluded. /cb