ANGARA URGES CHED, DepEd: IMPROVE RP HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM

Sen. Edgardo Angara has again called on the DepEd and CHED to improve the country's overall education and higher learning system through increased scholarships, faculty development, strengthened research and development and upgraded facilities.

As the Senate is set to deliberate on the 2010 national budget for the DepEd and CHED this week, Angara reminded the public that "the country has dropped 16 notches in recent global competitiveness reports because of the weakness in our science, math and engineering curricula and the lack of skills on the part of teachers. The increase in budget for the education sector will be our first step in improving," stressed Angara, Chair of the Senate Committee on Finance.

He said there is a need to invest in teachers across all levels of education, especially Science and Mathematics teachers, as they are the heart of the education system. Continued improvement of our higher education, he said, is critical in a country like the Philippines, which exceeds the ideal student-teacher and student-classroom ratios.

Angara added there are only 125 scientists and engineers for every 1 million Filipinos. He urged both agencies to "ensure that all higher education institutions in the country devote 5% of their budget to research and development. To keep our economy at par with the world's demands, we need more of the highly-skilled workers that the Philippines is known for."

Statistics show that only 35% of the country's higher education faculty has a Masters degree, 10% with Doctorate and 55% without any. Angara lauded CHED's proposal to allocate funds for 4,000 Masters, 1,250 local PhD and 750 foreign PhD studies for teachers in higher learning institutions. CHED also mandated that by 2011 a Master's degree will be a minimum requirement for teachers in higher education.

At previous budget briefings in the Senate it was found that only 3% of the country's higher learning institutions own good facilities, and these are granted autonomous and deregulated status by CHED. Angara hopes CHED will be able to upgrade higher learning facilities to benefit 54 M teachers and 1 M students.

Angara assured the department that "CHED will be part of the investment and exchange agreements I am currently negotiating with investors and universities in China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan." He also suggested that CHED develop a Knowledge Center for IT Learning and Technology Development in the country to augment Filipino students and workers' IT skills.

Angara, former president of the University of the Philippines, has authored laws that aim to innovate and improve the country's education system. Among them are the law that institutionalized TESDA and CHED, the Basic Education Teachers Compensation Act, the Board of Computer Education Act, the School Building Program Act, the Charter for Center for Education Technologies and the Expanded Voucher System in Secondary and Tertiary Education Act.