Press Release
March 15, 2007

ANGARA SEEKS JOINT STUDY OF EDUCATION CRISIS

Reelectionist Sen. Edgardo Angara is calling for a joint legislative-executive inquiry into the education crisis so appropriate measures could be instituted to make the educational system responsive to the nations needs.

Angara proposed the joint study after noting that many college graduates - even from excellent schools - are either unemployed or underemployed despite the high cost of education.

We have doctors working as nurses, teachers employed as housemaids, engineers hired as draftsmen, and marine engineers functioning as seamen or ship stewards, he lamented.

Angara, the longest serving incumbent senator, cited the results of an international survey on the trends in mathematics conducted in 2003 in 45 countries where Filipino participants from public and private schools ranked 41st in math and 42nd in science.

Is it our failure to master English as the primary tool for learning, not just basic data but also for keeping up with the advancement in science, technology and social and commercial progress throughout the world? Angara wondered.

Angara has also authored the joint resolution calling for the establishment of a Joint Commission on Math, Science, Technology and Engineering (COMSTE) to improve the quality of education, a follow-up on the increased access to free public high school education.

The quality of education was one of the main topics in a Senate workshop at the Westin Philippine Plaza where leading educators gave their views on what was wrong with the education system and what should the Senate do to correct it.

Angara, a former president of the University of the Philippines, said the joint study should result in the restructuring of the educational system so that it could turn out graduates who could find jobs suitable to their level of education.

The Department of Education has proposed a bridge program that would add one more year in high school, believing that this could help improve the quality of education. Critics, however, said this would only lengthen by one year the same quality of education.

Angara had chaired the Joint Educational Commission or EdCom that proposed a number of educational reforms in the Eighth Congress, including the free public high school education, the government assistance to students and teachers in private education, the series of salary hikes for public school teachers and the provision for more public school buildings.

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