Moving to ensure continued reforms to improve quality education, senators have unanimously ratified a bicameral conference committee report Endorsing the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II) tasked to promptly come up with much-needed reforms to avert a looming education crisis.
Sponsored by Sen. Sherwin T. Gatchalian, the enabling legislation embodied in the “Second Congressional Commission on Education [EDCOM II] Act,” was billed as a timely legislation to resolve the differences between House Bill No. 10308 and Senate Bill No. 2485, creating EDCOM II to undertake a comprehensive national assessment and evaluation of the Philippine education sector’s performance.
Endorsing transformative, concrete, and targeted reforms to make the Philippines both globally competitive in both education and labor markets, the EDCOM II’s national assessment and evaluation will review how the mandates are observed in laws that created the Department of Education (DepEd), the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).
Moreover, the national assessment will also recommend specific, targeted and time-bound solutions to enable education agencies to improve their performance vis-à-vis measurable indicators and deliver accessible, inclusive and quality education that is at par with world standards.
As provided in the enabling law, the commission will have three years to accomplish its mandate, with the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) serving as the Research Arm of the Commission to produce data based research and provide analysis in the formulation of education policy recommendations.
Gatchalian assured that through the EDCOM II law, timely attention will be focused on what was billed as “a crisis in the education sector” seen to be aggravated by the contagion.
“If we want to elevate the quality of education for our youth and ensure brighter future for them, we cannot set aside implementing needed reforms,” Gatchalian stressed as sponsor and co-author of the measure.
Citing a joint report by UNICEF, UNESCO, and the World Bank entitled “Where are we on Education Recovery?,” the senator aired concern that “9 in every 10 Filipinos aged 10 cannot read or understand a simple story. This translates to a learning poverty level of 90.5 percent.”
In a news statement, Gatchalian credited his co-authors pushing for timely passage of the measure, including Majority Leader Miguel Zubiri, Minority Leader Frank Drilon and Senators Juan Edgardo Angara, Grace Poe, Joel Villanueva, Imee Marcos, Nancy Binay and Cynthia Villar. -30-
