President Benigno Aquino III cited in
his last State of the Nation Address (SONA) that an additional investment in
education was proposed within the 2016 budget.
The government is eyeing the K to 12 Curriculum as the ‘solution’ to the
problems that the education sector is facing. In fact, President Aquino said in
his last SONA that the 10-year basic education cycle is not enough to prepare
the youth in meeting the international standards and in bracing ourselves
toward the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Integration.
If the present administration focuses on enhancing this sector for the
Filipinos, what would be the state of the Philippine education 20 years from
now?
It is believed that by 2035, education in our country will be fully
developed. In a datum provided by the Department of Education (DepEd), 73.9
million textbooks were distributed to all public schools nationwide, and these
will be followed by 88.7 other textbooks this 2015. And so, it is expected by
that year all the learners’ materials would be revised and published. Also,
many are anticipating that all the backlogs would be given attention to – such
as hiring of well-equipped teachers, building of additional classrooms,
providing of arm chairs, tables and other school supplies – that the government
have started since the K to 12 has been implemented.
In addition, education in our country would make a vast reform in
uplifting our economic status. In a study that was made, 71.9 percent of the
graduates of “Training for Work Scholarship Program” conducted by the
government already found a job, compared to the 28.5 percent that was recorded
before. And surprisingly, the electronics industry reached 91.26 percent employment
rate this year, which was 8.74 percent closer to a hundred percent. Surely by
2035, the world market would ask greater necessities, especially when it comes
to “Technical Vocational Skills.” Since the people’s knowhow depend on what
they are taught in school, changing the face of education is a huge step to
cope with the demands of that time. And now that the government made reforms in
our curriculum, it is expected that our Senior High School (SHS) graduates by
2019 would have a higher level of credentials that are acceptable and
applicable to the international standards, and they would be more globally
competitive in terms of knowledge and skills.
Furthermore, we also believe that 20 years from now, education will be
more accessible to the Filipinos. As of 2010, an estimated 4.7 million added
enrollees are anticipated until 2017. Also, the number of out-of-school youth
went down by 1.7 million. These data show that the government is taking actions
to make education reachable even for the unprivileged ones. And if this
improvement will continue, we are hopeful that our nation will attain a higher
literacy rate and a community with no “OSYs” in the future.
We are positively looking forward to the continuous development of
education in the Philippines. There are tons of opportunities that are waiting
for us in our region and around the globe. And we strongly believe that we
would be able to achieve the success of our country’s vision if we start to
make a step towards a greater stage of education, 20 years at hand.
*I wrote this editorial article for our school paper on 2015. This was our main editorial.
