EDUCRISIS: Robredo to declare ‘education crisis’

Vice President Leni Robredo seeks to declare an “educational crisis” if she wins the presidential elections on May 9, 2022.

According to Robredo, this declaration aims to give the government an "all hands on deck" strategy during the “The Education President: Interviews with Presidential Aspirants on Philippine Education” at the University of Pangasinan Friday, April 8.

“The pandemic has only exacerbated all our education problems,” Robredo said.

She shared that the two major problems of the education sector in the country are access and quality.

One of her suggestions to the government is to provide better education access to areas far from schools.

She mentioned one of the programs of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) that helped bridge the gap between the learners and resources.

In areas with high dropout rates of high school students, the OVP initiated a transportation service and built fully-furnished dormitories inside public high schools where students may stay for free.

Robredo also intends to raise the education budget from three to six percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) to improve the education quality in the country.

Additionally, she talked about easing the teachers’ burden on administrative work so they can concentrate more on instruction.

She highlighted the importance of addressing their need for competitive salaries, training, and further education opportunities.

“Bottomline, are we investing enough in education? Kasi hindi. We are not investing enough in education. That’s why hindi natin maibigay sa teachers ito,” Robredo said.

Robredo also talked about the disconnection between the education system and the skills needed in the industry.

“Ang dami nating college graduates na walang trabaho. May mga trabahong available pero hindi nagco-connect yung mga trabahong available sa skills na prino-provide natin.”

In solving this, she said that the academe and the industry must communicate to create a more suitable curriculum and that courses should be more creative.