Trends, Issues, Challenges and

Concerns of Philippine Education

in the Third Millennium

The Department of Education receives the 2014 lion’s share of the national budget, with PHP 336.9 billion (over US $7.7 billion) which is 14% more than the amount allocated in 2013. Most of this new funds will work to stimulate and develop the K-12 program.

1

Higher Education Adjustments

Higher education institutions (HEIs) and the

Philippines government are doing what they can to

create solutions to the unemployment problem.

Two examples include:

• reforms transforming agri-colleges into state

universities to provide more opportunities to

disadvantaged students;

• quality control by the Commission on Higher

Education (CHED) shutting down programmes that

aren’t up to standard.

2

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is

doing its part by launching a ‘My First Job’

facilitation programme which will provide skills

training to the tune of US $5.6 million. Funding for

the programme was provided by the Asian

Development Bank (ADB) and the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) in the

hopes that it helps “Filipino youth find jobs at much

faster rate and encourages more foreign investors to

put up business in the country.”

3

Higher education institutes are responding too.

Some are offering programmes which they believe will give students the skills they need to find work. Business World Online reported that of the nearly2,300 highered institutes in the Philippines, 1,259 of them were offering business degrees in 2012.

4

A higher education summit took place in early 2013

between business executives and university

administrators, and the outcome was a list of

recommendations for HEIs, one of which was the

“identification of competencies that will be expected

from graduates of higher education institutions in

four courses: business management, information

technology, electronics engineering, tourism and

hotel/restaurant management.”

5

These four subjects were chosen because they are the

“academic areas producing the workforce for…

industries important to the economy’s continued

growth… Their improved relevance to industry,

resulting from their redesign, would only mean

greater employability for their graduates and a

stronger workforce for associated industries.”

6

Education authorities in the Philippines are also embracing technology.

-In June the Manila Bulletin reported that the University of the Philippines system has joined forces with Google to provide Google Apps for Education on campuses across the country. This means that over 70,000 students, faculty, staff and alumni of the University of the Philippines will have access to email, more memory and a file sharing space.

7

Google Apps for Education is popular there; the

universities are not the only ones using it: “The

Commission of Higher Education (CHED) and the

Department of Education (DepEd) have already

adopted the system last year, and the Technical

Education and Skills Development Authority

(TESDA) adopted it earlier this year, effectively

making the entire education department of the

Philippines users of the Google suite of apps.”

8

The University of the Philippines also recently made tech

headlines when the Open University, an autonomous unit

within UP, partnered with The Australian Agency for

International Development (AusAID) to “study of

effective use of tablet computers for public school

students.” Students in nine schools around the capital

have been given 1,000 tablets to use in their classrooms,

and the aim of the study, which is being funded in the

region of PHP 24 million (nearly US $500,000), is “to

understand how digital devices can complement

traditional ways of pedagogy and learning.”

9

Vocational education reacts

In response to the youth unemployment rate and

the desire for students to learn employable skills, the

TESDA has been actively promoting its schools and

learning centres as the more practical option to high

school students. TESDA Director General Joel

Villanueva said: “I know the idea of a college or

university education is always appealing. But TVET

is more affordable, hands-on, and the path to a good

job is shorter.”

10

TESDA supports a number of TVET centres across the

Philippines, all of which train students in vocations that

are vital to the country’s growing economy.

For example:

• The Auto Mechanic Training Center in Tacloban, Leyte is funded by Isuzu Motors Limited of Japan and has seen 117 graduates since the centre opened in 2008, most of whom are now working for Isuzu Philippines.

• Carpentry training courses are proving popular: “Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz recently announced that a study showed that the high demand for carpenters is expected to continue in the next five to ten years.”

11

A similar but different response to TESDA training

centres is the ‘boutique’ college. A private hospitality

management school called Enderun Colleges is

growing in popularity and expanding the number of

courses it offers. President Javier Infante explained,

“Just like big hotels and boutique hotels, we are a

boutique management school. It’s smaller, it’s new

and a different approach.” Enderun has partnered

with a number of schools and colleges in Europe, the

US and other parts of Asia to send its students on a

semester abroad.

12

TVET goes international

A number of countries have partnered with TESDA

either to receive its expertise or to train its experts.

Projects like those listed below are there for the

taking for any overseas providers wishing to

develop their international influence in technical

and vocational education.

In July 2012, Bangladesh sent 22 vocational education teachers and supervisors to the Philippines to study the technical education and training system. This was the third such group, the first two having visited in 2010 and 2011.

13

Two teams of officials from various Indian and

Bangladesh ministries spent time studying TVET

best practices in January of last year, hoping to take

away ideas with them to adopt in their own

countries. Secretary Joel Villanueva, Director

General TESDA said, “We hope we can be a good

role model to countries in pursuing the TVET

track.”

14

TESDA schools and centres are creating graduates

with employable skills which will contribute to the

thriving economy. As Director General Villanueva

has said,“TVET could just offer the best chance at a

solid career to graduates, and the savior against the

rising unemployment.”

15

Education in the Philippines, from primary to secondary

to tertiary and beyond, is evolving and responding as

the country develops and grows. The nation’s

government wants education at all levels to provide its

citizens with knowledge and skills to keep it

progressing long into the next century.

16

The Philippine Midterm Progress Report on the 2007

MDGs noted that the country is lagging behind its

targets of achieving access to primary education.

Millions of children remain deprived of educational

opportunities, many of them because of poverty.

17

The UNESCO EFA Global Monitoring Report

2009 that children in the poorest 20% of the

population receive five years less education than

children from the wealthiest families. Poverty

compels school children to engage in income

generating activities, resulting in frequent non-

attendance in school and subsequent dropping out.

Official figures put the number of working children

between the ages 5-17 at 4 million, with 70% of them

from the rural areas (2000-2001 National Survey of

Children). Of the 4 million, about 30% are not

attending school.18

The prevalence of malnutrition among children 0-5 years old in 2005 is 25% percent (2008 Draft Common Country Assessment Philippines). It is sad to note that the malnourished are more prone to repeat grade levels and drop out or achieve less in school.

The World Bank (WB) (2006) reported that the Philippines ranked nearly last in student performance on mathematics and science tests compared to the rest of the East Asia region. Also, more that 90% of elementary graduates failed the High School Readiness Test, which assessed mastery of basic competencies in the elementary curriculum.

19

Tertiary education is generally of low quality, as

evidenced by:

(1) low passing percentage in professional licensure

examinations conducted by the Professional

Regulation Commission (PRC);

(2) incompatibility of graduates’ credentials with

desired competencies for the workplace or for

entrepreneurship, and

(3) lack of ability of graduates to be gainfully

employed, with only 20 percent of college graduates

readily finding employment (Syjuco, 2006).

20

Ref.

http://monitor.icef.com/2013/08/philippine

higher-and-vocational-education-revamped-for

21st-century-demands/

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001852/1

85237e.pdf