Edcom 2: The gift of a second chance

LAST week’s article, “The elephant, the rhino and the swan in the classroom” (https://www.manilatimes.net/2023/01/20/opinion/columns/the-elephant-the-rhino-and-the-swan-in-the-classroom/1875005) presented all the problems and gloomy scenario of Philippine education. This article presents the potential solutions at hand.

The greatest gift is the second chance. The second Education Commission (Edcom) is a gift and it gives our educational system a second chance. Edcom 2, or RA 11899, is a law that holds great potential to solve the problems in education. It was left unsigned by President Rodrigo Duterte so it lapsed into law on July 23, 2022. Its mandate is to renew, assess and evaluate the state of Philippine education and recommend innovative and policy reforms in education, of course, appropriating funds for it.

First Edcom

In 1990, the Congressional Commission on Education was created by a joint resolution of the 8th Congress on June 17, 1990. This was driven by the observable decline and deterioration of education which had no significant improvement for 65 years since the Monroe Survey of 1928. The 14 summarized findings included those that were most significant to business and industry were the manpower mismatch and irrelevance of education.

In 12 months, the Edcom made recommendations that led to major education reforms, including the trifocalization of education — having three separate agencies in charge of the basic and special education, the technical vocational education and training, and the higher and graduate education. The teachers have been professionalized through the Board of Professional Teachers under the Board Licensure Examination for Professional Teachers of the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC).

The Enhanced Basic Education Act gave birth to the K to 12 curriculum only in 2013, with 1.3 million senior high school graduates in 2018. Before 2013, the Philippines was the last country in Asia with 10-year Basic Education. The other countries in the world were Angola and Djibouti.

Edcom 2 mandate

The tall order of the Edcom 2 is to make education accessible to all, recognize complementary roles of public and private education, and establish, maintain and support a complete, adequate and integrated system of education relevant to the needs of the people and society. Big words! It shall put education at the center of the development policies of the State — guided by a national vision on education.

It has laid out objectives related to investments in education, revisiting and harmonizing the ecosystem of the trifocalized education system, digital transformation, 21st century competencies of learners, and other education reforms benchmarking global practices.

It is given three years with the powers to coordinate with other agencies like the PRC, Civil Service Commission, and through multisectoral consultations, especially with emerging and innovative industries and services. The commission is mandated to deliver a report that includes a roadmap with clear performance indicators and results framework to address the learning crisis. It directs the identification of best national and international practices as well as the determination of the role of local government units. It categorically mandates the reduction of the gap between learning outcomes and the competencies required by the world of work.

The Edcom 2 shall be created with standing committees and a technical secretariat to be headed by an executive director, who must be a recognized expert both in the field of education and management.

Early recommendations

Here are some all-of-government and all-of-society recommendations worth considering in Edcom 2:

– The creation of a “superbody” that will hold the baton of education in a broader context of human development. It may be a Department of Human Development, which will harmonize, under one leadership, the trifocalized system for the lifelong learning of the Filipinos from early childhood development and learning to productive retirement. It may also seamlessly align the formal, nonformal and informal learning towards inclusive lifelong education and career progression. This may need to “restructure” the three systems into equally important collaborative autonomous institutions.

– Revisit K to12, its functional outcomes, curricula and structures, including indigenous and special education. Establish early childhood development and school-based interventions to provide for optimal nutrition and holistic wellness of learners.

– Standardize teacher education and training development at all levels. State should provide a premium to teachers’ salaries and welfare to be able to attract the best and the brightest, both in public and private education.

– Operationalization of the constitutionally mandated complementarity in public and private education. Review of existing programs and diligence in opening new schools and programs. Private educational institutions must be supported by the government.

– Incentivized accreditation under unified standards among quality assurance agencies. There is also a need to have performance-based subsidies to private institutions. Relax overregulation of educational institutions to encourage innovation.

– Strengthening of the transnational education as well as the industry- and agriculture-driven globalized education. Insertion of “agriculture” into the strengthened STEAM education as well as technopreneurial and agripreneurial education.

– Creation of an Integrated Management Information System of the human resource in the country and the world, with use of data analytics and artificial intelligence that are able to document present and forecast future demand and supply. There should be a structure for active engagement of industries and commerce in the school’s board.

– Unleashing the potential of the local community colleges and universities for more locally relevant rural developmental areas like fisheries, agriculture, tourism, enterprise and technology development, and others that promote indigenous and culturally specific products and services.

As education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world, as per Nelson Mandela, may the Edcom 2 unleash the weapon to somehow change the country. As Edcom 2 unfolds, hope springs eternal.