DepEd Secretary Sonny Angara
Uniting to solve the education crisis
July 20, 2024 4:30 pm
By the end of this month, a new school year will officially start. Using the numbers recorded last year for SY 2023 - 2024, we can reasonably expect that more or less 27 million learners will be enrolling in the basic education system this time around—23.2 million in public schools, 3.7 million in private institutions, and some 611,000 in the Alternative Learning System (ALS).
Celebrating 50 years of the National Nutrition Month
July 13, 2024 6:59 pm
2024 marks the 50th year Nutrition Month is being celebrated in the Philippines. It was in 1974, during the administration of then President Ferdinand Marcos that the celebration of Nutrition Month started by virtue of Presidential Decree No. 491, s. 1974, which also paved the way for the creation of the National Nutrition Council (NNC). PD 491 designated July as Nutrition Month for the purpose of creating greater awareness among Filipinos on the importance of nutrition. For the 50th Nutrition Month, the NNC has chosen the theme: “Sa Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN) Sama-Sama sa Nutrisyong Sapat Para sa Lahat.”
A resurgence in Philippine tourism
June 29, 2024 5:15 pm
Over the past two years we are seeing a resurgence in the Philippine tourism industry. The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) recently came out with its 2023 Philippine Tourism Satellite Accounts data, which showed the sector posting the highest growth rate since the agency started monitoring this in the year 2000. PSA measures the value of the sector in terms of Tourism Direct Gross Value Added (TDGVA) and for 2023, the share of TDGVA to the Philippine economy, as measured by gross domestic product, was estimated at 8.6 percent. The TDGVA amounted to ₱2.09 trillion in 2023, representing a 47.9 percent growth over the P1.41 trillion registered in 2022.
Counterbalancing disinformation
June 22, 2024 4:21 pm
Over the past few decades we have seen an exponential growth in the use of technology and along with it, the amount of information that is being made available at the fingertips of people. A while back, the amount of content an individual can consume was dependent on his or her capability to pay for subscription to the internet, which back then was very expensive. Now, access to the Web has become easier and cheaper. All you need is a smartphone and a minimal amount of money to go through your favorite social media apps.
A well-deserved intervention for teachers
June 08, 2024 10:00 pm
On June 3, 2024 we witnessed President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signing into law the Kabalikat sa Pagtuturo Act or the institutionalization of the grant of teaching supplies allowance for our public school teachers. Known among the teaching profession as the “chalk allowance,” funding for this expenditure item is sourced from the budget of the Department of Education and is intended to assist teachers in their procurement of teaching supplies such as cartolina and manila paper, pens and chalk, hence the moniker chalk allowance. Apart from institutionalizing the funding for this much needed expense of our educators, the law increases the amount provided at ₱10,000 annually for each teacher.