THE Senate moved to assess the Philippine education system in a bid to improve its dismal ranking after placing 113th out of 127 countries in the education category of the 2017 Global Innovation Index.
Sen. Sherwin T. Gatchalian confirmed over the weekend he was tasked to mount the inquiry in aid of crafting remedial legislation as chairman of a subcommittee mandated to “look into the current state of the Philippine education system and assess the efficacy and effectiveness” of existing education laws and policies.
In filing Senate Resolution 675 paving the way for the hearings, Gatchalian is expected to render a subcommittee report for appropriate action by the education committee, before the report is submitted to the entire Senate for plenary action, if remedial legislation is needed to promptly carry out reforms.
The senator’s resolution noted that despite earlier legislative reforms introduced by the government to expand access and improve the quality of the Philippine education system, the country still ranked low in the education category.
Moreover, Gatchalian grumbled over the poor marks received by the Philippine education system on the Global Competitiveness Index 2017-2018 recently released by the World Economic Forum. In this index the Philippines ranked 66th out of 137 countries for primary education quality, 74th for secondary education quality and 76th for quality of math and science education.
According to the senator, a comprehensive review of the performance of the Philippine education system, with special emphasis on collecting and analyzing concrete empirical evidence regarding key educational access and quality indicators, is necessary to craft responsive legislation and policies that will put the country on the right path toward the transformation of the Philippine education system into a world-class institution.
He added that the output of the Senate subcommittee would guide the legislative and executive reforms to be crafted in empowering the State to fulfill its obligation under the Constitution and international law to “provide the Filipino people with access to quality education at all levels.”