A PROBLEM well-stated is half-solved, says Charles Kettering. Are the education problems well-stated by Education Commission 2 (Edcom 2) half-solved?

Edcom 2, Republic Act 11899, was left unsigned by President Rodrigo Duterte and lapsed into law on July 23, 2022. After one year, Edcom 2 published its report, “Miseducation: The Failed System of Philippine Education.” It highlighted the underinvestment, disjointed governance and inequitable access that have persisted for decades.

In its second year, Edcom 2 released a report entitled “Fixing the Foundations: A Matter of National Survival.”

“Fixing the foundations” is a call to action, not a tagline. First, to realign priorities toward the foundational stages of learning: on early childhood education and nutrition, and on primary education during which critical competencies are built. Second, to strengthen the foundations of our education system.

Educating the malnourished

Early childhood care and development (ECCD) is recognized to have a critical role in student achievement, but it remains unattended with the lowest attention and support. Ninety-seven percent of parents believe children under 5 are too young for school. However, only 50 percent of children ages 3 to 4 are engaged in reading activities at home. Forty percent of parents migrated for work when their children were young.

The government’s allocation of P3,870 per child for ECCD services is inadequate (the average is P8,700 in low- and middle-income countries).

Many Filipino children continue to suffer from severe malnutrition, high stunting and low early childhood education participation. Seventy-five percent of Filipino children do not meet the recommended energy intake.

Bullied and dumbed

Most children progressing to Grade 4 are one to two years behind and have only the actual competencies of Grades 2 or 3. Grades 8 and 9 students struggled with basic subtraction and multiplication. Student achievement in Grade 4 (for math and science) declined by up to 12 percent — 14 percent of a standard deviation, or equivalent to half a year of learning.

Almost half of all learning days are lost due to class suspensions. The learning recovery programs need to be revisited as data show they do not reach targets.

The Philippines is the world’s “bullying capital” due to the high prevalence of bullying (PISA report), where 65 percent of Grade 10 students in the country experience bullying a few times a month. This is amid the outdated Anti-Bullying Act of 2013 and the lack of personnel in DepEd offices that focus on anti-bullying efforts.

No principals, scarce classrooms

Fifty-five percent of public schools have operated without fully designated school principals, and 12,057 schools have incorrect school head items — leaving quantity, quality and qualifications of school leaders in a dismal state.

Only 30 percent of school buildings are in good condition. The backlog in classroom construction is at 165,000 classrooms, resorting to multiple shifts as well as alternative delivery modes. Urban schools face congestion due to high population density.

Only 35 of 90 textbook titles have been fully delivered as of January 2025, halfway through the school year (SY) 2024-2025, for the Matatag Curriculum Grades 4 and 7.

Not enough room for brightest and OSY

The Philippine Science High School (PSHS) system, in the past three years alone, has turned away 5,807 of the “brightest students” due to limited slots. Private school students outperform public school students (43 percent vs 17 percent) in the PSHS National Competitive Examination (NCE).

Only 12.2 percent (600,000) of the 4.9 million out-of-school youth have been reached by the Alternative Learning System (ALS). The ALS also continues to suffer from inadequate funding. Meanwhile, 58.1 percent (13,713 out of 23,603) of community learning centers are classified as makeshift temporary spaces.

Free is not good enough

The higher education participation of 34.89 percent (Asean average 41.10 percent). The top deterrents to pursuing higher education today include employment/looking for work (44.17 percent), lack of personal interest (24.94 percent), and financial limitations (20.98 percent).

Despite free higher education in state and local colleges and universities, the attrition or drop-out rate in higher education is alarmingly high at 39 percent at the national level (93.4 percent in BARMM, 60.7 percent in Region VII, 59.5 percent in Region IX, and 54.9 percent in CAR).

Increases in enrollment in SUCs have already exceeded their “optimal carrying capacity.”

The proportion of the poorest receiving tertiary education subsidy (TES) declined markedly from 74.24 percent in 2018 to just 30.74 percent by 2022. The TES was reduced from P60,000 to P10,000 and caused limitations of program choice, non-completion and drop-out.

Higher education has a limited ability to adapt to socioeconomic developments because college courses are reviewed and updated every 11 years. Most education policies are limiting as they follow a one-size-fits-all approach. Empirical analysis finds that at least half of all HEIs in the country are, in fact, small, with limited course offerings and faculty and zero research and extension activities.

The Philippines has only 172.01 researchers per million inhabitants (the world average is 322.51). Graduate students only comprise 18.02 percent of student enrollment in the country.

With complex immigration and visa requirements and stringent government regulations, the Philippines welcomed only 17,337 international students in 2022 (100,437 foreign students in Singapore and 63,308 in Malaysia).

Teachers hold the key

The Teacher Education Council (TEC) has swiftly moved and launched its roadmap for innovative programs. However, challenges persist in clarifying the relationship between the TEC and CHED’s Technical Panel for Teacher Education.

Underperforming teacher education institutions (TEIs) continue to operate despite consistently poor licensure examination records amid the mandate of the PRC Modernization Act of 2000 (RA 8981) to monitor school performance and teaching conditions. The teacher education curriculum remains unaligned with the Licensure Examination for Teachers. The board ratings are high, but the passing rate remains low.

In high school, 62 percent of teachers teach subjects outside their college major (a 98 percent mismatch in the physical sciences and an 80 percent mismatch in the biological sciences), highlighting a critical gap in subject-specific expertise.

Teachers face limited career advancement opportunities. It takes teachers 15 years to move from Teacher 1 (salary grade 11 at P27,000) to Teacher 3 (salary grade 13 at P31,320). There is already a two-year delay in the issuance of the IRR for the Career Progression System (Executive Order 174, s. 2022).

Ancillary administrative tasks still burden teachers, making two out of three teachers work more than 40 hours per week.

Promising TVET

Lack of coordination and fragmentation impede the country from providing useful labor market information to guide policies and decision-making.

While TVET graduates are highly employable (95.5 percent), many (15.2 percent) end up underemployed, with 30.3 percent ending up in the informal sector — earning slightly lower daily basic pay than non-TVET graduates. Enterprise-based training has been held back due to outdated guidelines as well as inadequate oversight and support since the 1990s.

Many sectors still do not have industry boards, and many courses lack training regulations.

Bigger picture

Trifocalization, the separation of education governance, has not improved learning outcomes because it has instead created silos operating in isolation rather than working toward cohesive policy development.

The constitutional provision on “complementarity” between public and private education has not been operationalized. Private enrollment has dropped by 20 percent.

Our education system suffers from underinvestment. Currently, the Philippines allocates an average of 3.2 percent of its gross domestic product to education (recommended at 4 percent-6 percent).

Now that Edcom 2 has stated the problems well, with recommendations, the government must lead to solving these — or this country is doomed.

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