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A broader look at today’s business Sunday, August 11, 2024 Vol. 19 No. 299
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A TOUGH MISSION FOR DEPED CHIEF ANGARA NEWLY MINTED EDUCATION SECRETARY SONNY ANGARA HAS PEDIGREE, EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS, AND THE HEART FOR HIS POST, BUT MUST FACE TWO OF THE TOUGHEST CHALLENGES: BOTTOM-DWELLING COMPETENCY SCORES AND A TALENT-JOBS MISMATCH.
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By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco
IS confirmation hearing last Wednesday (August 7) may have been easy sailing—and deservedly so, both because of the traditional courtesy given to former lawmakers like him, and his impeccable credentials—but the rest of Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara’s journey henceforth will be, like the Beatles song, a “long and winding road.” Angara, described in many quarters as the “perfect choice” to inherit the portfolio of the Department of Education and Culture, has no illusions, however, about the challenges that go with the post. It will certainly be no walk in the park, and he, of all people, understands what the most important and urgent problems are, having been active, as his late father was, in the congressional commission on education. His father, the late prolific lawmaker and former Senate President Edgardo J. Angara, had authored several key pieces of legislation in education and was once president of the University of the
Philippines. His mother Gloria was a former teacher. The pedigree plus his own excellent educational background and experience in crafting policy are just what he needs to tackle two of the most daunting challenges of the DepEd chief: first, the consistently poor showing of Filipino students in international assessments, having languished near the bottom in competencies in language, mathematics and science, but more telling, in critical thinking. Second is the perennial job mismatch of Filipino graduates and what the economy or the nation needs, notwithstanding the
grand, unproven promise of the controversial K-12 system that graduates of high school under the 12-year program would be jobsready.
Academic performance THE first problem was tackled last Wednesday in a Senate hearing, just as Angara was breezing through his confirmation in the hands of former peers. The former senator had barely warmed his seat, having assumed office on July 19, when the hearing on the persistent issues in basic education took place.
At that hearing, two senators said they were not quite impressed by the result of the DepEd’s National Learning Camp (NLC) in improving the academic performance of Filipino students. Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, who chairs the Senate Committee on Basic Education, did not hide his deep disappointment with the result of the NLC Assessment (NLCA). Gatchalian cited the 2023 NLCA test results showing one of the regions got 37 percent during the pre-test of the learning camp,
but during the post-test gained an even lower 35 percent. “Even in the pre-test and posttest…in fact [in the] pre-test, 37 percent and the post-test 35 percent, bumaba pa. Nagbigay tayo ng intervention program, bumaba pa yung kanyang grades…it goes without saying that this program needs massive reforms,” Gatchalian said. “The intention is good but we are not hitting the right results,” he stressed. Senator Nancy Binay, who also joined the hearing, meanwhile, questioned the effective-
CHALK ALLOWANCE ACT Senate President Francis “Chiz” G. Escudero leads the signing of the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) for Republic Act No. 11997, also known as the Kabalikat sa Pagtututo Act, on Wednesday, August 7, 2024. The Act grants a P10,000 allowance to public school teachers engaged in the basic education curriculum. This allowance can be used for purchasing teaching supplies, covering incidental expenses, and implementing various learning delivery modalities. It is considered an outright expense, exempt from receipts and taxes. Newly confirmed Department of Education Secretary Juan Edgardo Angara and Senator Ramon Bong Revilla Jr., the bill’s author and sponsor, were also present. To further alleviate teachers’ burdens, Escudero suggested reducing the reporting requirements for teachers to the DepEd. SENATE PUBLIC RELATIONS AND INFORMATION BUREAU/OFFICE OF THE SENATE PRESIDENT
ness of the NLC. “We want to know the real situation, whether the nine days had an impact, because the nine days in camp was not successful,” Binay pointed out. The NLC is a voluntary program that will start its phased implementation with Grades 7 and 8 focusing on English, Science, and Mathematics. Binay lamented the dismal scores of Grade 7 and Grade 8 students in the NLC in 2023, even as the DepEd maintained significant increases in the participants’ test scores during the nine-day program. Less than 50 percent of the participants showed improvement in English, Math and Science after the learning camp, the DepEd assessment showed. The NLC was launched to address learning loss and enhance teacher capacity as part of the MATATAG Basic Education Agenda. It serves as a subprogram under the National Learning Recovery Program (NLRP) specifically designed to tackle learning loss.
Cost of NLC This July, the Learning Camp consisted of 9 days of face-to-face sessions of students, which cost the government a whopping P1.8 billion, or about P200 million per day. Continued on A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES Q US 57.4430 Q JAPAN 0.3903 Q UK 73.2513 Q HK 7.3705 Q CHINA 8.0057 Q SINGAPORE 43.3499 Q AUSTRALIA 37.8607 Q EU 62.7163 Q KOREA 0.0418 Q SAUDI ARABIA 15.3071 Source: BSP (August 9, 2024)