Geline Salac

Boardroom Tea: The last stand for Philippine education

Article (news)

Salve Ibaňez

ABS-CBN News

Two days ago, the Executive Director of the Second Congressional Commission on Education Dr. Karol Mark Yee delivered an intervention letter wrapped in policy prose. &quot;The Philippine education system is at a decisive moment, defined not only by the sobering evidence of a learning crisis, but also by an unprecedented convergence of alignment, momentum, and collective action.&quot;  EDCOM 2&#x27;s Final Report entitled &quot;Fixing the Foundations&quot; reads like the clearest, most honest diagnosis of Philippine education—revealed while the patient is barely alive but still breathing. The report weaponized three years of research into a National Education and Workforce Development Plan that functions as a 10-year educational roadmap for the education sector. In the report, Dr. Yee and his team methodically documented the Philippines&#x27; descent into academic neglect: Most Grade 3 students were 1-2 years behind curriculum expectations during foundational learning years. By Grade 6, only 19.56 percent achieve proficiency. The carnage accelerates—just 0.74 percent and 0.4 percent reach proficiency in Grades 10 and 12 respectively. That&#x27;s not educational progression—that&#x27;s systematic academic deterioration. But who is this guy who dares to speak the hard truths? Yee brings formidable intellectual artillery to this crisis: a Cambridge PhD, Harvard master&#x27;s degree (as a Fulbright Scholar), and the rare combination of analytical precision with policy implementation experience. His previous stint as CHED Executive Director taught him that brilliant reports mean nothing without execution muscle.Heading the think tank for something as critical as our education system also means he has to answer to a lot of bosses. The commission has, as co-chairpersons, Senator Bam Aquino, Senator Loren Legarda, Rep. Roman Romulo, and Rep. Jude Acidre. Its commissioners include Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, Sen. Joel Villanueva, Rep. Steve Solon, Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong, and Rep. Anna Victoria Veloso-Tuazon. Then you have the different Cabinet Secretaries who have a stake in the recovery of the education sector.<div>The Angara Wild Card </div>Speaking of Cabinet secretaries, I have missed the witty and very tito Instagram stories of Education Secretary Sonny Angara. While denying involvement in flood control project anomalies, the controversy engulfs his Sigma Rho fraternity brother Trygve Olaivar, who resigned as DepEd undersecretary after being linked to alleged budget insertion schemes. I know he continues to navigate treacherous political waters, although the noise has died down a bit. These distractions arrive precisely when focus is crucial. A historic P1.37 trillion education budget has been proposed for FY 2026, with P961 billion for DepEd alone—the largest allocation to any national government agency. Yet education spending remains at 3.6 percent of GDP, below UNESCO&#x27;s 4-6 percent benchmark and trailing regional competitors. These are problems that Sec. Angara has merely inherited. The governance architecture amplifies dysfunction: DepEd participates in at least 261 institutional bodies, twenty-one jointly attended with TESDA and CHED. Performance targets cascade inconsistently—the Philippine Development Plan sets broad goals, the General Appropriations Act attaches budgets to different indicators, while individual commitments often track compliance outputs rather than learning outcomes. But the crisis runs deeper than classroom statistics. The malnutrition statistics alone should trigger a national emergency: 23.6 percent of Filipino children are stunted, while 42 percent among the poorest quintile suffer chronic undernourishment. More damning? Over 200,000 malnourished children aged 2-4 remain unserved by DSWD&#x27;s Supplemental Feeding Program, which reaches only 43 percent of nutritionally at-risk two-to-four-year-olds. The program feeds older children when it is the 2-4 years old that they should prioritize. Here&#x27;s the cognitive development scandal: Only 48 percent of households with young children own educational toys while merely 40 percent have children&#x27;s books. When early brain development depends on stimulation we&#x27;re systematically denying to half our children, we&#x27;re programming disadvantage into entire generations. DepEd also confronts a staggering classroom backlog of 165,443 classrooms for decongestion, replacement, and repair—escalating to 219,000 by 2028. Natural disasters compound this crisis exponentially. The September 30, 2025 magnitude-6.9 Cebu earthquake alone damaged over 7,500 classrooms, displacing more than 19,000 learners and nearly 1,000 personnel. Here&#x27;s EDCOM 2&#x27;s most explosive finding: Philippine education operates a &quot;mass promotion&quot; system that advances students regardless of competency. A staggering 88 percent of students across all grade levels are not &quot;grade-level ready&quot; in reading, with 40-52 percent of Junior High School students reading at least two grade levels below expectations.   This isn&#x27;t educational failure—isn&#x27;t it akin to fraud on a massive scale? Think about it. Here&#x27;s the economic reality that should terrify every policymaker: As our demographic window closes by 2045, the next two decades determine whether we leverage our human capital advantage or watch it become a demographic burden. <div>The Final Verdict</div>EDCOM 2&#x27;s mandate expires this year, but extension through 2027 becomes non-negotiable—not because they failed, but because educational resurrection requires sustained oversight during implementation.  The National Education and Workforce Development Plan targets five priority clusters: Healthcare, Digital Technology, Financial Services, Advanced Manufacturing, and Tourism—requiring coordination between DepEd, CHED, and TESDA that historically hasn&#x27;t existed.   Educational reform requires the same analytical rigor and execution precision that builds successful businesses. EDCOM 2 has provided the analysis—now we need leaders who can execute with equivalent precision.The choice crystallizes: act on these findings with urgency, or accept mediocrity as our permanent educational destiny. Given the stakes—our children&#x27;s future and our nation&#x27;s competitiveness—there&#x27;s really no choice at all.

The Philippine education system is characterized by a lack of classrooms, malnourished children, and the mass promotion of students to grade levels they are not ready for, among others.

The Philippine education system is characterized by a lack of classrooms, malnourished children, and the mass promotion of students to grade levels they are not ready for, among others.