The document discusses issues with the Philippine education system and its relationship to poverty and economic status. It notes that many children cannot complete their education due to family poverty levels. While the government budget for education has increased, problems persist such as insufficient school facilities, textbooks, and teachers. Corruption is seen as preventing budget increases from resolving issues. Improving basic education conditions, enforcing anti-corruption measures, and focusing on keeping children enrolled are recommended before expanding to the K-12 program.

1. The approach to the study of politics that I will be using to discuss and answer the question is the
Political Economy Approach. This approach talks about the relationship between the economics and the
government. I choose that approach because I believe that economics and government have a contribution
and inclination in discussing and assessing the Philippine education in relation with poverty and the kind of
governance we had in the Philippines.
The economic status of our country greatly affects the Philippine education. There are lots of
Filipino families who cannot send their children to school and even finish elementary due to extensive
poverty because of unemployment and not enough income to keep children in school until they graduated.
The percentage of the enrollees to the graduates is really at par from each other because there were only
few who really graduated in college. Moreover, I heard from the news on televisions that during the
opening of the school year 2013-2014, many concerns were raised to the Department of Education
(DepEd) especially in the public education concerning about the following; insufficient numbers of chairs for
a lot of enrollees that made some students sit on the floor during class; lack of classrooms which some
classes were hold at the gym and multi-purpose halls, insufficient numbers of books and some were
obsolete and rotten, lack of teachers, tuitions fee increase in private schools, lack of school facilities, poor
quality of education, and many more, which most of them are basically money matters. Due to those
problems, the improvement of our Philippine education walks like a turtle, very slow because these were
not addressed well by the government and the people in position. They must do something with our
Philippine economic and Philippine education in order to eradicate poverty.
As I see it, our Philippine education and Philippine economic status are interconnected, they affect
each other. What might be the status of either of the two will be the status of the other. Presumably, the
relationship of the two is directly proportional if we just not consider other factors (e.g. corruption). If the
Philippine economic is high, tendency is the Philippine education will improve since those money related

2. concerns will be addressed and many children will be given a chance for education. On the other hand yet
never been happen, if the Philippine education is improving, tendency is the economic will also improve
together with good governance just like what happen to Singapore.
On the other hand, there was a quiet high increase of budget allocated for DepEd by the
government from the year 2011 up to now. Last year the Philippine government increases the allocated
budget for DEpEd, from the Php 207 Billion in year 2011, it has been increased 15% for the 2012 budget in
the amount of Php 238.2-Billion and increased more by 23% for this year. In other words, there is much
budget allocated yet the problems about lack of classrooms, books, chairs, desks, teachers and school
facilities were not resolved even single of them, and sad to say that those problems were even increasing.
It is very ironic, because supposedly, with that big amount atleast the issue on lack of chairs can be solve
but it is not I think that there is a great corruption happening in DepEd.
On the other hand, I still believe that education is our way out from poverty, and therefore it is really
necessary for us to do something to improve the Philippine education sector. In order to improve it, I
suggest that first; DepEd must solve the issues regarding the lack of school facilities, books and
classrooms and the ratio of teachers to students, especially in the public education. I believe that by
attending first to this problem would also help the other concerns such as quality education. By providing
enough school facilities, it will make the school or the classroom a conducive environment for learning that
would help the students enhance their understanding and attention in class because it will make them more
comfortable to learn. I believe that it would also be of great help if the Government must focus and support
much on the education sector not only by providing more funds to it but most especially on the supervision.
In the Philippines, our government focused more on how to pay our depts., issues about corruption,
passing of laws and bills, how to eradicate crimes and poverty, employment and etc. I believe that
education would be of big help to solve all of those issues just like Singapore. If we try to look at Singapore,

3. their government gives more attention on the education of their young people because they believe that
they must be taught well because they will soon be the next leaders of their country. Having that strong
belief that education is the way to economic success that makes Singapore today part of the most leading
countries in the world. In relation to quality education, DepEd must hire qualified and competent teachers. It
is not merely the environment that affects the child’s learning but also on how the lessons are delivered.
Secondly, stop corruption. According to Ninoy, “Pag walang corrupt walang mahirap” and I agree
on that. If all the head or the people in the higher position in the government and the Philippine education
sector, I think Philippine education will improve. Good governance that is not corrupt will be a good start for
a change in our Phil. Education. We have a lot of brilliant young Filipinos yet do not have the chance to go
to school because of poverty. In order to give those Filipinos opportunities and their right to education, we
must stop corruption. The formula is good governance + good economic status + good educational system
= minimize poverty.
Third, the problem of our education is not on the years that the student went to school but on how
to make them stay in school and graduate. K-12 program is a very nice program that looks toward global
competitiveness, but as we can see, we have not yet even solve the problems that we have now and we
are planning to add more years. Adding more years means adding more school facilities, classrooms,
teachers, another problem and many more. I am not against K-12 but I think our country is not yet ready for
that considering those concerns mention above and drop-outs rate is still high. Instead of focusing on the
new program, I suggest that the government together with DepEd and other education sectors must first
address the current problem faced in our present Philippine education before introducing K-12 program.