Press Release
January 15, 2008

ANGARA HAILS S&T AS THE WAY OUT OF POVERTY
Calls for drastic reforms in education

Senator Edgardo J. Angara stressed the power of science, technology and innovation to push economic growth and ease poverty, and centered on education to realize the country's S&T potential.

"A knowledge-based economy that thrives on innovation is the key to our development, but it requires first and foremost an effort to improve our education," he said. "This means investing in education and upgrading science education at all levels."

He also called for bigger investments in research and development, inter-institutional collaboration among universities and research institutes, government and business, as well as policies supportive of innovation.

"Knowledge is the most important factor in economic development today. It is not low-wage, unskilled labor that drives a country's growth. We need a well-educated, technically-skilled workforce to produce high-value goods and services," he explained.

"We need serious reforms in science and math education, starting from basic to secondary up to higher levels of education. That is still the best way we can develop a talented and skilled pool of human resources," he said.

Currently, the Philippines suffers a low number of S&T graduates, with engineers and scientists constituting 13% and IT 9.5% of all college graduates, greatly outnumbered by business, medicine and nursing graduates.

Students are underperforming in the primary and secondary levels. The latest National Achievement Test showed that for every 10 items, a typical grade six student can correctly answer about 5 items; a fourth year HS student, 4 items.

"This is hardly surprising, with the declining quality and number of teachers in the country. There are more non-majors teaching science subjects than teachers with science degrees. For instance, 90% of physics teachers are not physics majors; 80% for chemistry teachers," he said.

Angara added that the country should adopt a culture of innovation and change, starting with enabling policies including fiscal incentives for the promotion of S&T, an overhaul of the Labor Code, support to SMEs to do R&D, and industry-academe-government linkages.

During the 13th Congress, Angara created the Congressional Commission on Science, Technology and Engineering (COMSTE) to look into the country's science, engineering and technology. It prioritizes electronics, IT, agri-food, health science and R&D as sectors that will provide opportunities to improve competitiveness.

News Latest News Feed