SENATE OFFICE, Manila, March 31, 2011-In a recent interview with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Senator Edgardo J. Angara, chair of the Senate committee on Education, Arts and Culture said that the only way to get closer to the second Millennium Development Goal of universal education is through increased of state funding after researchers from the USAID consulted Angara in accordance with the bilateral assistance agreement between the two countries about the state of education in the Philippines which will be used to guide the next USAID-Philippines education strategy.
“Insufficient state subsidy as one of the main reasons behind the slow progress of the Philippine’s education sector,” Angara said, adding that underinvestment in education will prevent Filipinos from being globally competitive although the numbers reflect a steady increase in the government’s allocation to the DepEd, per-student spending is actually of less real-world value now than in previous decades.
The Senator said that this lack of a workable budget undermines the ability of a university to fulfill its functions as a research and development facility.
He added that state universities and colleges (SUCs) are primarily research-oriented where the Senator said that in order to have effective applications in daily lives a field of study requires steady funding.
“The best-case scenario has the majority of students enrolled in good public schools,” he said, explaining that the goal is to have 70% of students attending quality, state-funded schools.
He furthered that SUC system is quite good and there are public schools nationwide but still there is a need to be regulated to ensure the quality of education.
Angara concluded that educational development and national progress should be correlated revealing that these are the weaknesses of the current educational system; thus, the need for the advancement of the Philippines education. (Jason de Asis)
