Legacy fund pushed to address education woes

SEN. Edgardo Angara said there is a need to create a legacy fund to support the upgrade of the country’s education system.

Angara, who is in Cebu, said he was pushing for this proposal to address the expensive cost of education in government universities and colleges.

Angara suggested part of the funding for the fund would be taken from the use of the country’s natural resources, which could be spent to subsidize the fund.

Angara, head of the Senate education committee, said it was not enough for government to regulate the cost of education to make sure that college education would be affordable especially to the low income class families.

“It is more of a question of government coming up with investments/subsidies for private education,” he said in a press conference yesterday in a Cebu City hotel.

The Philippine education system is unique, he said. About 95 percent of the elementary school students are enrolled on public schools while only 5 percent are in private schools. In the secondary level, 85 percent of the students are in public schools while only 15 percent are in private schools.

education scenario

It is different scenario in the college level. About 85 percent of the college students are in private colleges and universities while only 15 percent are with government colleges.

“Because of the high percentage of private education in colleges and universities, you have to pay tuition,” said Angara.

He said government can help remedy the difficulties of sending students to private schools if they help these schools by building the laboratories or sports families they need for example.

“They will no longer be pressed all the time to increase tuition. If government does not help, parents will have to shoulder it (the cost of education),” he said.

Angara is also pushing for the government to prepare the country’s health care, social security, employment in old age and family structure and establish an institute of ageing to prepare for the ageing generation.

Angara was referring to the National Statistical Coordination Board research that by 2020, the elderly in the country would reach 9.7 million.

Angara said the government should ensure access to services especially in the social security, which should meet the growing demands of old-age insurance./Reporter Doris C. Bongcac with a report from Christine L. Pantaleon