To give the public and education stakeholders an idea of the current state of Philippine basic education, the Department of Education (DepEd), led by Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte, will give updates through the Basic Education Report (BER) 2023.
The BER 2023, according to DepEd Spokesperson Michael Poa, is a report to be presented to the public which contains the latest assessment of the challenges that the country’s basic education is currently facing.
“In this report, we would like to present to the general public what is the current state of basic education,” Poa told reporters in an interview on Jan. 13.
“We always hear that there are so many challenges in basic education in this report, we will identify the specific challenges of basic education,” Poa said in a mix of English and Filipino.
Aside from this, Poa said that the DepEd will also launch the “Education Agenda” or the plans and initiatives to be undertaken by the current administration to resolve these challenges.
“Once we have presented the challenges, we want to make sure that these will be addressed in the Education Agenda,” Poa said.
For instance, he mentioned perennial problems in basic education resources such as school facilities. “These are the things that we are looking at, supporting the teachers, the normal theme but what we would like to do is to present to you the specific agenda of DepEd so the public can also see what is the direction of DepEd in resolving these challenges,” he explained.
Making every Filipino an 'education stakeholder'
With the scheduled launching of its Education Agenda, Poa said that the DepEd aims to gather more support for education coming from all sectors.
“The thrust of DepEd is to make every Filipino an education stakeholder —we really need a whole-of-the-nation approach,” he said.
Aside from having its partner agencies from the national government and private sector, Poa said that other education stakeholders like parents, learners, and teachers are expected to attend the BER 2023.
“Our goal is that for this year, we should start widening our reach and trying to make every Filipino an education stakeholder,” he said.