More classrooms, teachers, scholarships in PGMA’s Luzon Urban Beltway

MANILA, Feb. 10 (PNA) – The Arroyo Administration has undertaken significant reforms in the education sector of the Luzon Urban Beltway (LUB).

The Office of the Presidential Adviser for Education (OPAE) said this is done by appropriating more funds, adopting more responsive educational policies, undertaking a major overhaul of the curriculum, and adopting innovative programs to address perennial issues and concerns.

Documents obtained by the Philippines News Agency (PNA) from OPAE said these perennial issues and concerns include lack of classrooms, schoolbuildings, teachers and textbooks.

OPAE Secretary Mona Dumlao-Valisno said in her report to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo that the Department of Education (DepEd) has built more than 15,000 classrooms for public elementary and secondary schools from 2001 to 2009 in the LUB.

This is evident in at least three schools checked by PNA in Quezon City, namely Tandang Sora National High School (TSNHS) on Mindanao Avenue, Tandang Sora, Novaliches; Ismael Mathay Sr. High School in Project 8; and Francisco High School in Bago Bantay.

“It provided an environment conducive to learning for students,” Valisno said in her report to President Arroyo, who vowed to improve and modernize the country's educational system before the end of her term in 2010.

The ratio of students sharing books in the LUB has been reduced to 1:2 from 1:31.

The Arroyo Administration also provided scholarships to 130,000 poor but deserving elementary and secondary students through Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (GASTPE) in LUB.

GASTPE also aims to assist poor but deserving students in the financial burden of studying in private learning institutions school year 2008-2009 and 2009-2010.

The government provided P5,000 to P 10,000 financial subsidy to enable poor but deserving students from the overcrowded public school system to enroll in accredited private high schools.

To support the industry’s need for more engineers, information technology (IT) workers and scientists, training were conducted to upgrade the knowledge and skills of teachers in the public elementary and secondary schools in LUB.

In Marinduque, Occidental Mindoro and Oriental Mindoro in Region 4-B, about 3,400 public elementary and secondary school teachers were trained on English, Math and Science subjects.

Also, the government installed computer laboratories in more than 1,100 public elementary and secondary schools in LUB which were granted internet connectivity to almost 1,000 schools in the super region.

In the regions covered by LUB, the Arroyo Administration provided over 43,000 college and postgraduate slots through the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and Department of Science and Technology (DOST), which helped meet the demand for an educated labor sector force among the highly technical industries in the super region.

President Arroyo has tasked the CHED, chaired by Dr. Emmanuel Y. Angeles, to strengthen its scholarship program to double the country’s engineers and scientists involved in research and development (R&D).

The Presidential Coordinating Council on Research and Development (PCCRD), which the President chairs, noted that the Philippines’ R&D standing is below the average for developing countries as determined by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

It was noted that the average spending for R&D should be equal to one percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and the average number of scientists and engineers per million of the population should total 380.

Currently, the Philippines is spending an average of 0.12 percent of GDP for R&D and has a total average of only 125 engineers for every million population.

To ensure the increase in the number of engineering graduates, the CHED will make use of the P1-billion Student's Assistance Fund for Education for a Strong Republic (SAFE 4 SR) program which the President launched last year to provide interest-free loan to third and fourth year college students to enable them to finish their schooling.

It has also emphasized the need to strengthen the College of Engineering in all state universities and colleges (SUCs) to increase the number of engineering graduates in the country.

The Technical Education Skills Authority (TESDA), chaired by Augusto “Buboy” Syjuco, intensified implementation of its technical-vocational training and related services in the LUB, producing around four million graduates as of 2009.

These are in the field of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), construction and computer hardware processing as well food processing.

BPO scholarships amounting to P 1.3 billion were provided to around 180,000 graduates from 2006 to 2009 in regions covered by the LUB.