Making Education Work

L I N K S

Making Education Work

The Congress enacted in 1990 Joint Resolution No. 2, which mandated the review and assessment of the entire educational system creating for the purpose the Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM).

The EDCOM, which was made up of five senators and five congressmen, studied in depth all levels of education in the public and private sectors and focused on vital areas of Philippine education; sectoral targets; education and manpower development programs; functional linkages with departments and sectors concerned with human resources development; teacher training, welfare and benefits; governance and management; and financing.

PACU luminaries shared with the EDCOM its experience and expertise in such areas as governance and management, private financing of education and human resources development.

After amassing information by direct consultation, carrying out extensive and intensive public hearings, studying all primary and secondary documents over the last 20 years, and holding a National Congress Education, the EDCOM recommended for executive and legislative action the following:

Stress basic public education - elementary and high school - because it is all the formal schooling the masses of our people get. Set aside for this constitutional entitlement as much as we can of our available resources in money and talented people.

Encourage alternative learning modes, especially for the illiterate.

Make the vernacular and Filipino the medium of instruction for basic education.

Enlarge and enrich technical/vocational education--for young people whose aptitudes incline in this direction.

Restructure the Department of Education--to ensure that program focus is clear, resources are allocated rationally, and plans are realistic and attainable.

Ensure that only the best and most qualified professional become teachers and administrators--by making the rewards of teaching match its importance as a career.

Plan and support public and private education together.

Make it possible for private industry, workers, teachers, parents and Local Government to plan, deliver and finance education and training.

Ensure the children of the poor greater access to all levels of education.

Make public college and university education more cost-effective and curricular programs more relevant to the communities they serve.
Government support for higher education should go only to priority courses and programs--and to poor but deserving students.

Find new sources of money--including taxes--to finance basic education.

Implementing the EDCOM proposal on the restructuring of DECS, the Congress enacted in 1994 Republic Act No. 7722, An Act Creating the Commission on Higher Education, Appropriating Fund Therefor and For Other Purposes.

Pursuant to section 18 of the Higher Education Act of 1994, a transitory bidy was created which was composed of the DECS secretary, the chair of the Senate Committee on Education, Arts and Culture, the chair of the House Committee on Education and Culture, and a representative each from the PACU, the other members of the COCOPEA and the Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges.

Then PACU President Jose D. Baltazar and National University President Jesus M. Jhocson alternated in representing PACU in the transitory body.

Within a limited period of time the transitory body facilitated the complete and full operation of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and promulgated rules and regulations necessary to effectively implement the smooth and orderly transfer to the CHED of personnel, properties, assets and liabilities, functions and responsibilities of the Bureau of Higher Education, including those for higher and tertiary education and degree-granting vocational and technical programs in the regional officers under the DECS and other government entities having functions similar to those of the CHED.