CHED pushing for inclusive education in Philippines

The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) is pushing for inclusive education under the Marcos administration, chairperson Prospero de Vera III said on Tuesday.

At a Palace press briefing, De Vera was asked what programs of the agency he wants President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. to pursue and support. He noted the need to have equity when it comes to the admission process of the country's educational system.

"It is time that we focus on equity – meaning a conscious effort to identify the groups that we need to bring to university education that can be marginalized because of the admission process and the competitiveness," De Vera said.

"So, we are pushing that for the next five years, we will focus on inclusive education of telling our public universities to be very conscious in identifying students from public schools, students from poverty areas, the children of indigenous people, those have been marginalized to assist them pass the admission test because once they get into public education they don't anymore pay tuition and miscellaneous fees and they can be assisted," De Vera added.

"So, we want that to be the moving forward for the Marcos administration – an administration that will make sure inclusive education is realized," he said.

For his part, Department of Education spokesperson Michael Poa said the agency has been pushing for institutionalizing blended learning in the Philippines as a permanent mode of delivery in the education system.

"We feel that alongside iyong traditional solutions natin of hiring more teachers, building more classrooms to address the shortages, hindi po kasi mabilis o hindi nagagawa iyan overnight [it's not that fast or it can't be accomplished overnight]– that's why these problems are still with us today," Poa said.

The CHED and the DepEd met with Marcos Tuesday morning to discuss the accomplishments of the agencies. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News