In response to the learning crisis in the country, advocacy group Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) urged President Duterte to certify as urgent the Education Commission (EDCOM) Joint Resolution.
“We are in a learning crisis unlike any other,” said PBEd Executive Director Love Basillote in a statement issued on Aug. 5. “Our children’s futures and our country’s economic prospects are at stake,” she added.
Given this, PBEd called on the President to certify as urgent the EDCOM Joint Resolutions. “This will signal that the government is serious in addressing the learning crisis,” Basillote explained.
PBEd said that the Senate Committee on Basic Education held a technical working group (TWG) meeting on Aug. 5 on this resolution.
The Senate Joint Resolution No. 10, filed by Senators Sonny Angara, Sherwin Gatchalian, Franklin Drilon, Joel Villanueva, and Grace Poe, seeks to create a Congressional Oversight Committee on Education.
Similar measures in the House of Representatives have already passed the committee level on May 27, 2021.
In its submitted position paper to the Senate, PBEd expressed that the EDCOM resolution manifests its shared goal of addressing the country’s learning crisis.
“We believe a reset is in order and a multisectoral, multi-stakeholder EDCOM is the best vehicle to facilitate this change,” the position paper read.
The topic of the learning crisis trended last month as the World Bank released an education report that 80 percent of Filipino children were not learning the proficiencies expected of them.
The said report was based on an aggregation of three international assessments including the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2019 and the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics (SEA-PLM) 2019.
The World Bank Report, PBEd said, also offered “new insights on the determinants of poor student learning outcomes in the Philippines.”