ACT: Marcos-Duterte’s performance on education ‘critically unsatisfactory’

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers-Philippines (ACT-Philippines) on Thursday said it found the performance of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President and outgoing Education Secretary Sara Duterte on addressing issues in the education sector to be “critically unsatisfactory.” 

In a media briefing, ACT members disapproved of the administration’s performance on five areas of concern, namely education access, education quality, education orientation, economic welfare of workers, and union rights and academic freedom.

“Para po sa amin, sa hanay ng mga guro at kawani, sa report on the state of education sa loob ng dalawang taon ng administrasyong Marcos at Duterte, ito po ang binibigay namin sa kanya, critically unsatisfactory,” ACT president Ruby Bernardo said. 

(For us teachers and staff, on the state of education under Marcos and [Sara] Duterte, we are giving them a rating of critically unsatisfactory.)

In deeming the government as “negligent” in addressing education access, ACT Teachers party-List chairperson Antonio Tinio said that only a number of Filipinos are able to attain education in the country.

“Kaugnay nito ang pinakabasic na dahilan ay ‘yung kakapusan pa rin ng budget. Nananatiling nasa 3.5% lamang ng GDP ang nilalaan para sa edukasyon, malayo sa 6% na itinakda na international standard para mapondohan ng sapat ang edukasyon,” Tinio said.

(This is related to the most common reason that there is a lack of budget. Only 3.5% of the GDP is allocated to education, far from the 6% international standard for education.)

Due to this, he said that a majority of Filipinos only finish elementary school.

Meanwhile, ACT Philippines chairperson Vladimer Quetua dubbed the government’s performance regarding education quality as “inutile,” saying that the abandonment of the education sector continued.

Quetua cited the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment, which found that Filipino students ranked second to the last when it comes to creative thinking.

“Ang ating panawagan bilang pagtatapos, doblehin ang budget sa edukasyon, gawin itong 6% ng ating GDP. Tanggalin po, i-rechannel na ‘yung lahat ng confidential and intelligence funds sa social services,” he said.

(To conclude, we urge the budget for education to be doubled, it should be 6% of the GDP. All confidential and intelligence funds should be re-channeled to social services.)

Tanggol Kasaysayan lead convenor Dr. Mike Pante, for his part, gave education orientation a rating of “misoriented.”

“Ang inorder namin sa hanay ng mga guro ay isang edukasyon na makabayan, makamasa, siyentipiko. Bakit ang ibinibigay sa akin ay isang uri ng edukasyon ang oryentasyon ay patungkol sa pandaigdigang merkado?” Pante said.

(What we asked for is an education that is nationalistic, for the people, and scientific. Why is it that we were given an education that is oriented to the international market?)

Pante slammed the Matatag K-10 curriculum or the revised Kindergarten to Grade 10 (K-10) curriculum of basic education, saying it was only “rebranding.”

He also pushed for the return of history lessons in high school as well as wika at panitikan in college.

Bernardo, meanwhile, said that the government did not care about the economic welfare of educational workers and dubbed them “heedless.”

“Walang bagong Pilipinas. Walang nagbago kung hindi lumala yung kalagayan ng aming sektor, sa usapin ng sahod, benepisyo, at labis na pag tra-trabaho sa gitna po nung krisis na kinaharap ng ating bayan,” she said.

(There is no new Philippines. Nothing changed except that our condition worsened in terms of wage, benefits, and working amid the crisis facing the country.)

Bernardo stressed that the wages of nine out of 10 teachers do not meet the living wage. Aside from this, Bernardo said that the government has many contractual workers.

“Ang panawagan po ng mga guro at kawani ay gawing P33,000 ‘yung salary grade 1 at P50,000 naman po para sa teacher I,” she said.

(We want a P33,000 salary for grade 1 employees and P50,000 salary for teacher I employees.)

For the government’s performance on union rights and academic freedom, Contend chairperson Dr. Gerry Lanuza said it was “repressive.”

GMA News Online sought comment from Malacañang and outgoing DepEd spokesperson Michael Poa but has yet to receive a response as of posting time.—AOL, GMA Integrated News