Presidential candidate Senator Panfilo "Ping" Lacson seeks to update the basic education program offered to students in both public and private academic institutions to improve the functional literacy rate of the youth, especially amid the Information Age that was disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a six-page document prepared by his policy team released Friday, April 8, Lacson included much-needed reforms in the Philippine education curriculum among his priority programs for the education sector on top of his "Edukasyon Plus" agenda.
Lacson listed four key areas of development that he believes the Department of Education (DepEd) needs to focus on under his potential administration. These are values formation, digital media literacy, financial literacy, and gender development.
‘’First, good manners and right conduct, learning the values of family and society; second, digital literacy to better guide them at discerning mis- and disinformation from social media; third, financial literacy, and lastly, gender development and women empowerment,’’ according to the document.
Lacson and the members of his policy team said their goal is to prepare future generations of Filipinos in confronting the increasing challenges of our time, so they could become better and more efficient leaders in their own right.
‘’Lacson will pursue national scholarship programs for science and technology, education, sports and leadership skills to better prepare our youth sector to take over the responsibilities of management in business and government,’’ the document added.
In many of his engagements with young people during his previous town hall meetings, Lacson also mentioned plans to get more students involved in taking agriculture-related courses by offering scholarship programs for them in state universities and colleges.
Considered as a flagship program of Lacson for the education sector is his ‘Edukasyon Plus’ agenda, which will provide opportunities for senior high school students to earn at least P5,000 monthly allowance through the paid internship program of the national government.
‘’This (Education Plus) program aims to implement an education program that will keep our students in schools and give them the opportunity, at the same time, to improve their living conditions,’’ the policy team explained.
Aside from these, Lacson is bent on instituting his fiscal reforms to ensure that Republic Act (RA) 10931, also known as the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, would be funded and implemented properly, so that millions of underprivileged Filipinos could pursue college degrees.