The document summarizes key trends, issues, and reforms in the Philippine educational system. It notes that education remains the top government priority but budget allocation remains among the lowest in ASEAN. Two ongoing reforms - K-12 and free higher education - continue implementing but DepEd still faces shortages of teachers, materials, and facilities. Learning outcomes are poor with many students unable to read properly despite increased spending. Proposed reforms include raising teachers' salaries, targeting scholarships to the poor, and increasing industry involvement to address skills mismatches.

1. Trends and Issues in the Philippine
Educational System: Basis for Planning
and Policy Making
A Brief Presentation
by:
MELODY C. PRADO

2. Education in still the top priority in the
government budget for 2019.
Education continues to receive the
highest allocation in the 2019 budget .
DepEd - 531.57B
CHED - 52.435B
TESDA - 14.8B
Note: Philippines still has one of the lowest budget allocations to
education among the ASEAN countries.

3. 3
Two(2) of the most significant
educational reforms in the
country is still in continued
implementation:
1.K-12 Program
2.Free Higher Education

4. Same old problem is
encountered for SY 2019-2020
in DepEd
1. with shortages on the number of teachers
2. education support personnel
3. instructional materials
4. facilities

5. Commission on Higher
Education (CHED)
- Enjoined all SUCs & LUCs to
synchronized academic school year
- Universal Access to Quality Tertiary
Education (UAQTEA)
-has benefitted some 1.3 million students in
public universities
-Has benefitted more than 100,000
students in private universities

6. Philippine Business for
Education (PBEd)
-With the steady increase in education
spending, teacher and classroom gaps have
begun to close, and more children are going to
and staying in schools;
-the Filipino workforce is becoming increasingly
educated

7. PBEd said “learning outcomes tell a
different story.”
-childhood comprehension remains poor,
“with more than a third of Filipino children
scoring zero on both reading and listening;
Note: scores for both elementary and
secondary have stalled 59% only to which
the target is 77%

8. Synergeia Foundation CEO and President
Dr. Nene Guevara said that there is an
“ongoing reading crisis” in the country.
-some teachers in public schools are not
“competent readers” which is among the
factors why many Filipino students couldn’t
read properly.
-

9. 9
UNESCO GLOBAL
Monitoring Report 2019
-children in the poorest % of the
population receive five year less education
than children from the wealthiest family
-poverty compels school children to
engage in income-generating activities,
resulting to frequent non-attendance in
school and subsequent dropping out.

10. More Issues:
-Filipino graduates lack the skills demanded by industry
and the Philippines has one of the highest rates of
youth unemployment in Asia. (International Labor
Organization)
-Some teachers have “so much work,” they barely have
time to teach.
-According to the study conducted by the Philippine
Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) entitled
“Pressures on Public School Teachers and Implications
on Quality,” teachers are given administrative or student
support role such as paper works, seminars, training
workshops, among others.

11. -Tertiary education is generally of low quality as
evidenced by:
a. Low passing percentage in the professional
licensure examinations conducted by PRC;
b. Incompatibility of graduates’ credentials with
desired competencies for workplace or for
entreprenuership;
c. Lack of ability of graduates to be employed
with only 20% of college graduates readily
finding employment.

12. Job Mismatch
-There is a large proportion of "mismatch"
between training and actual jobs. This is the
major problem at the tertiary level and it is also
the cause of the existence of a large group of
educated unemployed or underemployed.
-

13. Proposed Reforms
1. Upgrade the teachers' salary scale. Teachers have been underpaid; thus
there is very little incentive for most of them to take up advanced trainings.
2. Amend the current system of budgeting for education across regions, which
is based on participation rates and units costs. This clearly favors the more
developed regions. There is a need to provide more allocation to lagging
regions to narrow the disparity across regions.
3. Stop the current practice of subsidizing state universities and colleges to
enhance access. This may not be the best way to promote equity. An
expanded scholarship program, giving more focus and priority to the poor,
maybe more equitable.
4. Get all the leaders in business and industry to become actively involved in
higher education; this is aimed at addressing the mismatch problem. In
addition, carry out a selective admission policy, i.e., installing mechanisms to
reduce enrollment in oversubscribed courses and promoting enrollment in
undersubscribed ones.
5. Develop a rationalized apprenticeship program with heavy inputs from the
private sector. Furthermore, transfer the control of technical training to industry
groups which are more attuned to the needs of business and industry.

14. References:
Hernando-Maliput,Merlinda. “Has Change Come to Philippine Education.” Manila
Bulletin.18 May 2019.
Cadz, M. (2018). Trends, Issues, Challenges and Concerns of Philippine Education in
the Third Millennium.Retrieve on August 6, 2018.
http://www.ph.net/htdocs/education/issue.htm

15. END OF PRESENTATION