PBC calls for urgent need to fix public education
The 49th Philippine Business Conference (PBC), the country’s largest annual business gathering, has joined the call of legislators for an urgent need to fix the country’s deteriorating public education system, otherwise the demographic advantage will become a liability and imperil Vision 2050 for a first world Philippines.
This was stressed at the opening Wednesday, Oct. 25, of the two-day PBC at the Manila Hotel with the theme “Vision 2050: The Philippines A First-World Economy” where Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian, co-chair of the Second Congressional Education Commission, discussed “Shaping the minds and skills of the future leaders and workforce” in the Education Plenary.
George T. Barcelon, president of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) – organizer of the annual PBC, agreed with Gatchalian on the need to “fix the country’s public education system.”
“Yes, I agree with the Senator. The quality of learning has deteriorated over the years napabayaan e (It was neglected). Definitely, our public school needs a lot of improvement,” said Barcelon.
He said that it is not the number of years of education but the quality of learning. “I have nothing against the K to 12 program,” but he cited the poor quality of graduates as they don’t have the proper technical skills. In contrast, he said the “K to 10 program in my time was doing well.”
Barcelon also showed his opposition to the free state university education, which he said should be reserved only to students who are taking up courses that the country needs the most, like engineering, math and sciences. “We should put resources where there is biggest effect,” he added.
Meantime, in his speech at the PBC, Gatchalian presented the country’s dismal performance in global education standing, the quality of the K to 12 graduates, and their employment status.
“To become a first world country by 2050, this (education) is something that we all have been working together and then hopefully give our next generation a better future compared to ours. However, we cannot reach that first world status without addressing basic concerns and basic issues, surrounding education, particularly basic education because that's where the foundation begins. And I believe that to fix our country we have to fix our public schools,” Gatchalian emphasized.
The Senator pointed out that 86 percent of Filipino students go to public schools. He further said that eight out of 10 who will work in corporations in the next businesses will come from public schools. “So, it's important to address the concerns of our public schools,” he added.
While the government is catching up in terms of spending per student considering that the population vis-a-vis the number of schools is growing, Gatchalian noted that the education sector is not without challenges. These challenges are shown in the PISA results in 2018 where the Philippines came in last among 77 countries in terms of reading and second to the last in terms of math and science.
Thus, he said, the K to 12 program is designed to also address the supply of local workforce to domestic businesses. The K to 12 aims to have senior high school students to be college ready, that senior high graduates are work ready meaning they can work immediately in current corporations, and they are ready to venture into entrepreneurship if they want to.
However, he said, the senior high school students who go into the various tracks, 71 percent went into the academic track meaning they will proceed to college and about 30 percent of students go into technical or vocational courses.
Another data also showed that senior high school graduates contributed 7.1 percent of the country’s labor force in 2022 from 5.8 percent in 2021.
“If you compare that with the national unemployment rate, it is actually higher, meaning 17 percent of our senior high schools are unemployed …. so, the message here is our senior high school is not being employed compared to the national employment rate and those who are employed 50 percent of them are only employed in very simple jobs or elementary occupation,” he said citing data from various sources including those from TESDA and BLE-JobStreet 2019 SHS Employability Study.
And those employed senior high school graduates are employed in “very simple jobs” such as elementary occupations, like cleaners, janitors, domestic helpers, car washers, he said.
“This is where the dilemma comes in. We added two years in their senior high school. This is added cost for families. We promised them jobs. We promised them that they will be gainfully employed, but they're not. Instead, they are employed in elementary occupations and not employed in the corporations and the businesses that we have promised in terms of in terms of salary, as senior high school also are earning below the national average national the average national daily minimum wage… And the reason for that is a lot of our companies don't find our Senior High School worth employee,” he lamented.